WASHINGTON - For rookie astronauts flying aboard the International Space Station, the food is good, the rocket thrusters are loud and there's an odd tang in the air - apparently from outer space.

"It's a very, very different environment than I expected," Discovery shuttle pilot Kevin Ford, a first-time spaceflyer, said from orbit late Friday.

One of the things Ford wasn't ready for was the weird smell.

"From the [spacewalks] there really is a distinct smell of space when they come back in," Ford said from the station in a Friday night news conference. "It's like, this is gonna sound weird... like my Aunt Minnie's smothered muskrat and onions."

Space may smell like muskrat, "but," the astronaut quickly added, "it tastes like chicken."

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