Robyn Gatens in Ashburn, Virginia

We’re never surprised when we find out that a cheese maker we are interviewing has an impressive day job. But, we have to admit, we were dazzled when we found out that Robyn Gatens is the Director of the International Space Station (the first woman to ever hold that position).

She earned her Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She began working for NASA 36 years ago at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. MFSC is where the Saturn V rocket was developed for the Apollo missions.

She transferred from MSFC to NASA Headquarters in 2012, over a decade after astronauts began living and working at the Space Station (ISS). To date, the ISS has hosted thousands of research experiments from countries around the world. Approximately 240 astronauts from 19 countries have visited the station. The ISS has been continuously occupied since 2000 – students in college today have never known a time when there weren’t humans in space.

In addition to being the Director, Robyn is the agency’s senior expert for environmental control and life support (ECLSS) and crew health and performance systems.

Robyn’s Story

I started making cheese during the pandemic. My husband and and I were already making wine for some years and I was interested in cheese.

My background is chemical engineering so the science of cheesemaking fascinates me, as well as the satisfaction of making something from scratch and experimenting.

Given the demands of my career, I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to make cheese. I currently have 3 wheels in my fridge (cheddar, Tomme, Gruyere) but have made and consumed or given away other cheddars, feta, Camembert, havarti, mozzarella, ricotta and cream cheese.

How I learned:

I ordered a cheese making book and started there. I quickly found cheesmaking.com as a great resource for supplies, advice and recipes and have been slowly adding to my repertoire and equipment – cultures, different molds, etc.

I’ve had some challenges. My first Camembert turned out great, soft and creamy with a perfect white mold rind. The second time was a fail – the white rind did not fully develop and instead of softening, the cheese just got rock hard.

My havarti turned out more like a cheddar texture – still tasted good though.

I’m really struggling with keeping my cheese cave (a repurposed wine fridge) at a high enough humidity. Putting the individual wheels in their own containers with a damp paper towel works, but I am hoping to figure out how to control the whole fridge humidity so I don’t have to do that. The humidity in a thermoelectric wine fridge is around 40%, too dry for cheese. From reading other blogs, it seems others have the same problem.

I’ve invested in many pieces of equipment I now store in a large bin. I think the various molds are fun to use – I’ve collected several sizes and shapes. The high quality cheese thermometer and temp/humidity sensor from cheesmaking.com is a must have. I used a large canning pot for 4-gallon cheese recipes.

My goals:

I’d like to continue making different types of cheese and perhaps branch out to goat or sheep’s milk cheeses if I can find a source of milk. It’s fun to share my cheese with friends and family (including my dog, Maya, who loves the whey) – everyone loves cheese! I’d love to have more time for cheesemaking. It’s hard to fit in as much as I’d like with my busy career. But I find it really rewarding and a fun change of pace.

Overall, I’ve had more successes than failures and find the learning process really fun! Being an engineer, I get a kick out of solving problems. My husband (also an engineer by discipline, now also in the space business) has enjoyed participating in my cheesemaking, noodling about how he can build me a better press, building new perforated shelves for the fridge, and of course enjoying the results.