A NASA report issued to congress this week showed that the International Space Station faces a number of significant risks - not surprisingly flying space rocks crushing the hull among the biggest risks. But it didn't account for this: Wasabi.Yep, the hot green stuff that goes so well with sushi is a great threat when exposed to weightlessness as it could get in eyes, air ducts and all manner of things that might screw up a space mission.

According to an AP report: Astronaut Sunita Williams this week was trying to make a pretend sushi meal with bag-packaged salmon and accidentally squirted a load of the green stuff into the air. After a lengthy cleanup, the wasabi was exiled to a cargo bay. As for the other risks, the report said space debris and micrometeorites strikes topped a list of potentially serious risks that, if realized, could harm astronauts, force an orbital evacuation, or destroy the half-built space station, according to the report.

The threat of collisions with visiting spacecraft or an ISS robotic arm, onboard fires, and toxic spills follow closely after. Congress ordered the independent review of potential hazards to the ISS and its expedition crews in 2005. It was released simultaneously to Congress, NASA and the public this week.

The $100-billion orbital observatory is the result of an international agreement that includes NASA and 15 other countries. Currently crewed by three-astronaut teams, the ISS is expected to grow into a six-astronaut installation with as much habitable space five-bedroom home by 2010. Its exterior be almost as large as a football field in length when complete.