Introduction

Have you ever wondered what the astronauts eat in space? The foods they eat are fascinating.

The First Man To Eat In Space

In 1962, John Glenn, the first man to eat anything in space, thought it was fairly easy to eat. He was only in space for 4 ½ hours, and he found the menu quite limited. Most early astronauts found the food very unappetizing and disliked squeezing the food out of tubes. All of the food was stored in tubes so it would not get all over the cabin in flight. It would get all over because there is no gravity in space. The astronauts had to squeeze the food that was in a paste form out of the tubes directly into their mouths.

First Astronauts

In 1961 Apollo astronauts were the first astronauts to have hot water, which made re-hydrating foods taste better and it was easier to add water. Re-hydrating foods are where you add water to your food so it can go through your body easier. Also, they invented the "spoon bowl" at that time. The astronauts opened a plastic container and ate the food out of it with a spoon. This was a big improvement over the tubes and the pasty food.

How People Inside Skylab Made Eating In Space Easier 

Because of Skylab, eating in outer space for astronauts became easier in 1973. Skylab made room in the space shuttle for a dining room and table. Skylab had a large storage area. It could fit seventy-two different types of food in this area. It also had a freezer and a refrigerator. No other space vehicles up until Skylab offered this.

Astronauts Daily Menu

The astronauts today have a daily menu that is just like the one on earth. That means that they have most things that you would usually eat on earth in outer space. The daily menu includes frozen, refrigerated, and ambient foods. Frozen foods are usually vegetables, entrees, and desserts. Refrigerated foods are dairy products, fresh fruits, and vegetables. Ambient foods can be re-hydrated into drinks and normal shaped foods.

There are fifty different food groups in space, twenty-four different beverages, and seven toppings. Here are some of items they eat: mustard, sauces, beef, bread, brownies, candy, cereal, cheese, chicken, cookies, crackers, eggs, hotdogs, fruit, jelly, granola bars, ham, ham salads, macaroni and cheese, meatballs, noodles in chicken, nuts, potatoes au gratin, peanut butter, pudding, rice and chicken, rice pilaf, salmon, sausage patties, shrimp cocktail, soup, spaghetti with meat sauce, tortillas, tuna, turkey and vegetables.

That is only a few of the examples. Just about any astronaut would be able to find something they liked from that menu.

The space program has come a long way from its beginnings with pasty food in a tube to the restaurant style meals that are served today.