About Vickie Kloeris
Vickie Kloeris is a food scientist with an out of this world career. She worked at NASA in space food systems for 34 years. For 29 of those years, she served as the NASA manager of first the Shuttle and then the International Space Station food systems. She and her teams worked through the complex challenges of creating tasty, nutritious, long-lasting, easy-to-prepare meals that support the dietary and psychological needs of astronauts living on the space station. Kloeris has worked with 100s of astronauts to plan their favorite meals and holiday specialty meals for space travel.
Kloeris received NASA's highest honor, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 2019. During her career, Kloeris was twice awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and received the Johnson Space Center Director's Commendation Award.
She earned a B.S. in Microbiology and a M.S. in Food Science and Technology from Texas A&M University. Kloeris has authored and co-authored many publications and done extensive public relations work during her time at NASA. Kloeris currently serves as President of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).
Space Bites: A New Book
Vickie Kloeris’s Space Bites: Reflections of a NASA Food Scientist takes readers through the many memorable moments of her career as she worked on both the Shuttle and International Space Station food systems. If you’ve ever wanted an inside look at what it’s like to assemble a sandwich in space, produce a space food lunch for the cast of Apollo 13, or work side by side with astronauts as they prepare for the journey of a lifetime, you’re sure to learn something new with the turn of every page. A charming balance of technical knowledge and human experience, Vickie’s career memoir is a story for the scientist, space enthusiast, and spontaneous reader alike.
Video
Vickie Kloeris discusses other worldly meals, a taste of space, and how the NASA food systems work.
Photo Gallery
Astronaut Karen Nyberg enjoys a space mocha cappucino and cinnamon scone.
Kloeris conducting a food training and evaluation session with astronauts in the food lab at Johnson Space Center. Such sessions are conducted for all crew members as part of their training before a flight. Photo credit: NASA.
Celebrity Chef Emeril Lagasse worked with Kloeris and NASA to create "kicked up" menu items for the ISS including jumbalaya, mashed potatoes & bacon and green beans with garlic. In this photo Lagasse displays the NASA freeze-dried and packaged version of his food while the screen shows the crewmembers in orbit enjoying the "BAM" of his spicy foods!
Radish crop being grown on the ISS. Growing fresh pick and eat vegetables for astronauts will be even more important for the long duration flights of the future. Photo credit: NASA.
Kloeris receiving her Distinguished Alumni award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at TAMU in 2017.
The Shuttle meal tray. This tray attached to the crewmembers thigh using velro straps to create a "table" for dining. Photo credit: NASA.
Thanksgiving dinner is a special meal aboard the space station. (crew left to right, Christina Koch, Alexander Skvortsov, Jessica Meir, Oleg Skripochka, Andrew Morgan, Luca Parmitano). Photo credit: NASA.
Astronaut Megan McArthur juggles decisions about ISS fresh grown vegetables and space food. Photo credit: NASA.
Astronaut Peggy Whitson displays her "space taco". Spicy foods are very popular with the astronauts. Photo credit: NASA.
Speaker
Recently retired from NASA, Kloeris is a media personality and an in-demand speaker. Her unique life experience of working with astronauts to plan space food and meals provides an interesting framework for stories of building teamwork, goal setting, innovation and leadership.
Food plays a vital role in an astronaut's day-to-day routine, from shared personal experiences to building team cohesion and trust. Kloeris provides a rare glimpse into the development of food systems for space travel, how times of crisis cause innovation, the astronauts favorite foods and the current challenges of designing food for deep space travel to Mars and beyond.
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