Chinese space station astronauts feast on spicy lamb, mooncakes for mid-autumn festival (video)

Chinese astronauts dug out tasty treats for the mid-autumn festival, which is a harvest event held every year between mid-September and early October.

In a new video, the three residents of the Tiangong space station pulled out food and chatted about the view around the time of this year's festival, which was Oct. 6. (The event is tied to the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which means the dates move in the Gregorian calendar used in most parts of the world.)

"We also have plenty of dishes for the mid-autumn festival," said Chen Dong, commander of the Shenzhou 20 crew, in the China National Space Administration video with English subtitles. Dong then filmed the food, while he and fellow taikonauts Wang Zie and Chen Zhongrui talked about the spread.

The festival is sometimes nicknamed the "Mooncake Festival", referring to pastries traditionally served to mark the event. "The ground crew thoughtfully prepared mooncakes for us," Dong said. "We naturally share all good things. It's delicious with the red bean paste filling."

Main course vegetable selections included white king oyster mushrooms, braised bamboo shoots, bean curd rolls, minced pork with mushrooms, and shrimp balls with water chestnuts.

Meat dishes included braised pork ("this is everyone's favorite," said Zhongrui), mild spicy lamb, black pepper beef fillet and "eight-treasure" chicken-—meaning chicken stuffed with eight ingredients. Then there were the sides: rice noodles, sweet osmanthus, cheese rice cakes and "space" zongzi, according to the astronauts' descriptions.

Chinese celebrations of the festival often include lanterns lit for good luck, but aboard the contained space station the taikonauts did not partake. Instead, they enjoyed the view of Earth 250 miles (400 km) below their three-module space station.

"We always think of our homeland; we always like to gaze through the window, from one home to another," Dong said. "Although the Earth is always within our sight, with this concern and longing, the motherland in our eyes and minds becomes three-dimensional rather than flat; becomes vivid rather than silent."

Dong added that in "vast space" it was not possible for the astronauts to immediately unite with their loved ones, but "our hearts are always closely linked with our motherland and people, and with our families." Shenzhou 20 launched to Tiangong on April 24 for what is expected to be a six-month mission.

Part of Dong's speech was delivered while he was viewing what he called the "Qinghai-Xizang plateau", which China considers theirs but which also has claims from several other countries.

China operates its own space station in part because it is independent of most other space agencies. NASA and other U.S. government agencies are not normally allowed to perform bilateral work with China, or Chinese-owned companies, due to a 2011 law known as the Wolf Amendment.

In recent years, Congressional hearings have framed the U.S. as being in a new "space race" with China, while representatives have also expressed security concerns about China's presence in space. Meanwhile, China is pushing space forward on several fronts, such as lunar sample return missions with Chang'e 5 and Chang'e 6, and the Tianwen 1 orbiter, lander and rover mission at Mars.