That Time an Astronaut Got a Pie Sent to the International Space Station

Peggy Whitson was the first female commander of the International Space Station. In October 2002, she was living on the Station. And during STS-112, the shuttle mission that sent astronauts to help build out the Station's infrastructure, her husband took part in a time-honored tradition: he sent her a care package.

One of his gifts? A pie. 

In a talk about Station life at the Aspen Ideas Festival yesterday, astronaut Jeffrey Ashby told the pie-in-the-sky story. Traditional gifts that shuttles delivered to Station-bound astronauts tended to be things like books and movies and DVDs, he said -- things to help astronauts living on the Station keep connected to the people and cultures back on Earth. 

In Whitson's case, though, the gift was a pecan pie -- a gesture from her husband. "I don't know how he got it past the food people," Ashby said.

Read more at The Atlantic.