As well as keeping astronauts sustained so they can do their all-important work, space food needs to be lightweight, compact, long-lasting and nutritionally dense. But just as humankind has come on in leaps and bounds in terms of space travel itself, the meals eaten at zero gravity have drastically improved in the past few decades too. From freeze-dried foods to homegrown chilies and even coffee, here’s our bite-sized history of space food.

Early space expeditions were too short to require food onboard, but by the early 1960s, space missions were traveling further distances. In April 1961, Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin was the first to eat a meal in space – if you can call it that. Onboard the Vostok 1 spaceflight, he ate two tubes of puréed meat followed by a tube of chocolate sauce for dessert. 

In February 1962, John Glenn ate this appetizing-looking tube of puréed beef and vegetables during the Mercury Friendship 7 mission, which saw him become the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. He also ate a tube of applesauce and some sugar tablets dissolved in water. But taste wasn’t the main worry at this point: scientists were concerned about whether astronauts would be able to swallow and digest food in a zero-gravity environment and how their bodies would react.

It’s a popular misconception that Tang was invented by NASA. That’s not actually true – in fact, the orange powdered drink was invented by General Foods in 1957. But when it was reported that Tang was one of the foods tested by astronauts aboard the 1962 Mercury mission, the vibrant drink became much more widely known. It allegedly improved the poor taste of water from the life support system on spacecrafts.

During the same Mercury mission, Glenn and his team also ate food cubes made from broken-down and compressed cornflakes, or cubes of toasted bread which were coated in gelatin so they wouldn’t disintegrate. Crumbs are a big no-no in space as they can float away and into vital equipment. 

But the no-crumbs rule didn’t stop US astronaut John Young from smuggling a contraband snack onboard the Gemini mission in 1965. Young slipped a corned beef sandwich, which had been bought from a Florida deli by his friend Wally Schirra, into his spacesuit and whipped it out during a quiet moment to take a bite. According to audio evidence, Young and his commander Virgil “Gus” Grissom had a brief conversation about the sandwich, deciding it was too crumbly and putting it away.

Also during the Gemini 4 mission of 1965, astronauts were lucky enough to enjoy a trendy 1960s dinner-party staple: shrimp cocktail. In fact, astronaut Edward White even claimed it was his favorite meal aboard the spacecraft. Naturally, the shrimp cocktail had to be rehydrated in space before eating. 

NASA began to use freeze-drying methods to preserve food for space in the early 1960s, although the technique wasn’t new. In fact, it had been invented hundreds of years earlier by the Peruvian Incas, who discovered that foods kept at high altitudes froze and dried out over time. Freeze-dried ice cream, now available to enjoy on Earth too, was first eaten onboard NASA’s Skylab space station in the 1970s. 

During the historic Apollo 11 space mission in 1969, astronauts were able to enjoy hot meals in space for the first time. This was thanks to hot water dispensers on spacecraft, which allowed for freeze-dried items such as soup, chicken and rice, spaghetti, beef patties and even chocolate pudding to be heated up. 

Alongside freeze-dried items, astronauts on the Apollo 11 tried out 'wetpack' meals for the first time. These were ready-to-eat, temperature-controlled meals which hadn’t had any moisture removed so didn’t need rehydrating, although they tended to be sticky and dense to avoid anything floating off. They included sausage patties, chicken stew and even spaghetti bolognese. 

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In 1969, aboard the Apollo 12 mission, which performed the second successful landing on the moon, astronauts ate a cycle of meals which repeated every four days. These were engineered to meet nutritional needs and totaled around 2,200 calories a day. One item was a packet of tuna, which had to be rehydrated by injecting water into the bag and then massaging it for a few minutes, before being mixed into a salad. 

At space stations, where teams often had to stay for weeks at a time, getting the right food for astronauts became even more important. When NASA’s Skylab was launched in 1973, refrigerators were included onboard, allowing astronauts to enjoy meals more similar to those they would have on Earth. These included chili, ham, mashed potatoes and even steak. 

Ever craved cold soup out of a tube? Us neither. But that’s what Russian cosmonauts onboard the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project ate. Pictured are astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Donald K. "Deke" Slayton with their tubes of borscht (beetroot soup) – they’ve stuck vodka labels onto the tubes as a way of toasting each other. 

To heat the meals up, astronauts used an innovative food warmer tray developed in the 1970s. The device used conduction to heat up individual compartments where meal packages could be placed. The process maintained the original texture, which meant homely dishes like chicken pot pie could be enjoyed in orbit.

When it comes to getting their five-a-day, luckily astronauts have a few options. Freeze-drying works well for certain fruits such as berries – so well, in fact, that it’s been adopted by cereal manufacturers down on Earth. Meanwhile, fresh fruits (apples and bananas) were first taken into space in 1983, according to NASA. 

Fast-forward to the 21st century and space food has come a long way. In 2005, Japanese food company Nissin developed instant noodles, known as Space Ram, which could be eaten in a zero-gravity environment. They were first eaten in space by Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in July that same year. 

Nowadays, astronauts don’t have to put up with bland food in space – although their seasonings look a little different. Given that traditional salt and pepper shakers would be a disaster in zero-gravity environments, astronauts are given liquid salt and pepper sprays instead. 

Since fresh salad vegetables don’t suit being dehydrated or freeze-dried, they haven’t been eaten in space – until recently, that is. Between 2014 and 2016, lettuce was grown in batches aboard NASA’s Artemis III mission. The leafy vegetable was cultivated in special sealed units containing ceramic soil, while light came from LEDs and water was injected by astronauts. According to studies, some batches even contained higher quantities of certain nutrients than varieties grown on Earth.

Ever wondered how astronauts get their caffeine fix in space? Until fairly recently, it was a case of making do with instant coffee mixed with hot water. But in 2015, coffee company Lavazza teamed up with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to develop a capsule-based espresso machine aboard the International Space Station (ISS), nicknamed 'ISSpresso'. Here, astronaut Scott Kelly enjoys his first taste of the freshly brewed beverage.

Is there anything astronauts can’t make with tortilla wraps? In February 2015, NASA flight engineer Terry Virts shared this snap of a ‘cheeseburger’ he’d created aboard the ISS. To make the concoction, he smeared a tortilla wrap with cheese paste, tomato paste and mustard, along with torn-up beef patties. 

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In 2016, astronauts at the International Space Station were even able to mark Thanksgiving by sitting down for a traditional meal, taking to Twitter to share pictures of the feast. On the menu was rehydrated turkey, stuffing, vegetables and potatoes. 

In 2016, British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal rose to the challenge of creating a bacon sarnie that could be enjoyed at zero gravity. The resulting concoction, a crumb-free bacon sandwich in a can, was eaten by British astronaut Tim Peake during his trip to the International Space Station that year.

Astronauts can even enjoy nostalgic flavor combinations such as PB&J. However, to avoid crumbs they swap bread for a tortilla, which is covered with peanut butter from a jar and jelly from a tube, according to a video released by NASA in 2017. As you’d imagine, making the snack is significantly harder at zero gravity: jars have Velcro for easy closure and astronauts must fasten condiments to tables to stop them from floating off. 

In 2016, NASA food scientists unveiled new ‘food bars’ which astronauts would be able to have as a nutritious breakfast in space. While they might not look that different to your average muesli bar, these nutrient-dense bars pack in around 700-800 calories apiece, making a space-saving meal replacement. They come in four flavors: banana nut, orange cranberry, ginger vanilla and barbecue nut. 

On 26 December 2019, while many of us were busy eating up Christmas leftovers, astronauts aboard the International Space Station announced they had successfully baked cookies in space for the first time. The one-of-a-kind experiment saw astronauts using special onboard ovens and baking cookies for up to 130 minutes at a time to achieve the right consistency – much longer than they’d take down here on Earth.

Gone are the days of squeezing puréed vegetables and meat out of tubes. For French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who launched the SpaceX rocket to the ISS in April 2021, dining at zero gravity will involve eating a menu created by Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse. Among the high-end options are dishes like beef bourguignon, lobster, salmon with a balsamic reduction (pictured) and almond tarts with caramelized pears.

In November 2021, NASA astronauts harvested their first-ever crop of chili peppers grown in space. The seeds were brought to the International Space Station in July and were planted in special ‘growth’ chambers and left to mature for four months before they could be eaten. The astronauts enjoyed the space-grown chilies on top of beef and tomato tacos (made with tortilla wraps, of course). Astronaut Megan MacArthur called them her “best space tacos yet”. 

In the not-too-distant future, astronauts may also be able to grow tomatoes in space, using an LED box similar to the one shown here. Scientists at the University of California have used gene-editing technology to create tomatoes with smaller leaves and stems, which will mean they take up less space and can be grown more easily on the ISS.

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