What Space Smells Like

Outer space may be soundless, but it's apparently not odorless. Life's Little Mysteries recently found a 2009 interview with a NASA astronaut. In it, Kevin Ford spoke of picking up the weird odor while undertaking spacewalks.

It's not something he could smell while embarking on them (the plastic odor of the spacesuit overruns the nose then), but once back in the International Space Station, the smell is there: a metallic odor that ix described as having the "aroma of seared steak, hot metal, and welding fumes."