``There's a need for nutritional, tasty Japanese food that the astronauts are accustomed to eating,'' said the company. ``There have been growing calls among our astronauts for something like this.''

Nissin said its top researchers will be devoting their noodles to making a product that tastes good and doesn't fall apart in zero gravity. The goal? ``To create the ultimate light snack.''

``This is also in response to a strong wish by our chairman Momofuku Ando, who invented the instant noodle, to create food for outer space,'' the company said.

NASDA's Kibo research module will be launched by the U.S. space shuttle to the space station in three separate shots beginning in 2004. Nissin plans to have its extraterrestrial noodles ready by then.

Ando, affectionately known in Japan as the ``noodle king,'' is credited with revolutionizing the eating habits of his nation and turning instant ramen into a multi-billion dollar business here.

Noodle fanatics can visit a faithful recreation of the wooden shack where Ando created instant ramen 44 years ago at the Instant Noodle Museum in western Japan.

Japan is the world's leading consumer of instant noodles on a per capita basis, wolfing down a total of 5.32 billion packs or an average of 42 packs for every man woman and child.

Nissin's instant noodles are also well known in the United States under the brand name Cup Noodle.

In Japan, instant ramen ingenuity is not just limited to dreams of outer space. At convenience stores around the nation, entire shelves are devoted to noodles that come in tastes that range from Korean ``kimchi'' cabbage to spicy cod roe spaghetti.

The snack, voted in a recent Japanese poll as ``the food of the century,'' is such big business that instant noodle makers from around the world converge on Tokyo every other year for the summit of the Instant Ramen Manufacturers' Association. Ando is chairman.