Sushi set to go sky high with Japanese astronaut

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Sushi will soar to new gastronomic heights next week when a Japanese astronaut blasts off for the International Space Station with a load of raw fish.

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who will fly into space on Monday from the Baikonur cosmodrome with Russia's Oleg Kotov and NASA's Timothy Creamer, said on Saturday he had introduced his colleagues to raw seafood when they trained in Japan.

"We had training in Japan and I trained (my space colleagues) to be sushi lovers, so I am going to make a couple of flavors of sushi," Noguchi told a press conference ahead of Monday's launch of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

"...Some sashimi, and raw fish and sushi and I will bring that up to the space station to share with my crew."

According to NASA, normal fare on the space station includes staples like mushroom soup, macaroni and cheese, or chicken and rice.

On the Russian side, there is tinned perch, curds with nuts and beetroot soup (borscht) sucked through a straw from a plastic bag.

(Writing by Toni Vorobyova; Editing by Michael Roddy)