Mar 10, 2021 10:58 PM
https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...stronauts/
EXCERPT: Beatrice Finkelstein, as chief of the Food Technology Section of the Life Support Systems Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, bore responsibility for managing the nutritional needs of the astronauts. Her work in the field of space feeding was instrumental in developing the equipment and techniques used in early space flight. Few, if any, female contributors played as important a role as she did during the early years of the U.S. crewed space program, and she deserves to be better remembered and lauded.
Finkelstein’s value to America’s space missions went well beyond her technical contributions. She was frequently described in the popular press at the time as “the Nutritionist to the Astronauts,” as well the proprietor of “Bea’s Diner,” a then widely known semantic construction designed to appeal to the public as a singularly friendly place within the otherwise all-business space program. In Bea’s Diner, high technology and home economics mingled.
In the weeks prior to each manned space mission of the Mercury space program, from 1961 to 1963, Finkelstein traveled from Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, to Cape Canaveral, Fla., in order to oversee the preflight and in-flight feeding of the astronauts. “Bea’s Diner” was situated in the specially designed, purpose-built facility just behind Hangar S, the massive warehouselike facility that was dedicated to astronaut training and served as their crew quarters. This was the place in which all seven astronauts of the initial Mercury Project ate their highly engineered preflight meals.
In her role as nutritionist for the early space program, Finkelstein grew to know the astronauts well, as she interacted with them frequently... (MORE - details)
Interview with Beatrice - brief segment
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/M2El7WVo52E
EXCERPT: Beatrice Finkelstein, as chief of the Food Technology Section of the Life Support Systems Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, bore responsibility for managing the nutritional needs of the astronauts. Her work in the field of space feeding was instrumental in developing the equipment and techniques used in early space flight. Few, if any, female contributors played as important a role as she did during the early years of the U.S. crewed space program, and she deserves to be better remembered and lauded.
Finkelstein’s value to America’s space missions went well beyond her technical contributions. She was frequently described in the popular press at the time as “the Nutritionist to the Astronauts,” as well the proprietor of “Bea’s Diner,” a then widely known semantic construction designed to appeal to the public as a singularly friendly place within the otherwise all-business space program. In Bea’s Diner, high technology and home economics mingled.
In the weeks prior to each manned space mission of the Mercury space program, from 1961 to 1963, Finkelstein traveled from Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, to Cape Canaveral, Fla., in order to oversee the preflight and in-flight feeding of the astronauts. “Bea’s Diner” was situated in the specially designed, purpose-built facility just behind Hangar S, the massive warehouselike facility that was dedicated to astronaut training and served as their crew quarters. This was the place in which all seven astronauts of the initial Mercury Project ate their highly engineered preflight meals.
In her role as nutritionist for the early space program, Finkelstein grew to know the astronauts well, as she interacted with them frequently... (MORE - details)
Interview with Beatrice - brief segment