The Love Space Guide № 006: What Astronauts Actually Eat

In 1965, on the Gemini 3 mission, astronaut John Young pulled a corned beef sandwich out of his spacesuit pocket — a stunt that horrified flight controllers, because floating crumbs can lodge in instruments and eyes, and prompted a formal reprimand from Congress. Six decades later, food in orbit is one of the most carefully engineered parts of any mission, balancing nutrition, weight, shelf life, and the strange fact that microgravity dulls the sense of taste. This is Guide № 006 in The Love Space Guide series.

From Toothpaste Tubes to Real Meals

The earliest space food was closer to a science experiment than a meal. On the Mercury missions of the early 1960s, NASA fed astronauts semi-liquid purées squeezed from aluminium tubes, along with bite-sized cubes coated in gelatin to stop them crumbling. The results were widely disliked, and the agency quickly learned that morale in space depends as much on appetising food as on calories.

By the Apollo era, engineers had introduced freeze-drying and hot water for rehydration, and the spoon-bowl package that let crews eat something resembling a normal meal. The early food systems were developed with industrial partners including Whirlpool Corporation, which worked on packaging and preparation hardware for the first crewed flights.

How Food Is Prepared for Orbit Today

Most food flown to the International Space Station is prepared at the Space Food Systems Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Meals are processed in several ways: rehydratable (water added in orbit), thermostabilised (heat-treated in pouches, like military rations or canned food), irradiated, and “natural form” items such as nuts, cookies and dried fruit that need no preparation at all.

Crews eat from a shared international pantry, so a menu might mix American, Russian, Japanese and European dishes. Agencies including the European Space Agency and JAXA contribute their own regional foods — the Japanese have flown space versions of rice, curry and ramen, while ESA has commissioned chefs to develop tinned French dishes for morale on long stays.

Why Everything Tastes Different Up There

Many astronauts report that food tastes bland in orbit. The leading explanation is fluid shift: without gravity pulling fluids down, they redistribute toward the head, causing a stuffy, head-cold sensation that dampens smell and, with it, flavour. As a result, strongly flavoured and spicy foods are especially popular, and shrimp cocktail with a sharp horseradish sauce is a long-running crew favourite.

Seasoning itself is a challenge. Salt and pepper cannot be sprinkled — the grains would drift away — so crews use liquid salt and pepper suspended in water or oil, dispensed a drop at a time. Tortillas long ago replaced sliced bread on many missions because they produce almost no crumbs and keep well without refrigeration.

Growing Food in Space

Everything eaten in orbit has, until recently, been launched from the ground. That is starting to change. The “Veggie” plant-growth facility aboard the ISS has produced several crops of red romaine lettuce, and in 2015 astronauts ate the first space-grown salad harvested on orbit. Later experiments grew zinnia flowers and, in 2021, chile peppers — one of the more complex crops attempted, partly chosen because astronauts craved spice.

Fresh produce also arrives as a treat on resupply flights, including those flown by SpaceX. Apples, oranges and other fresh items are eaten within days of arrival, because without refrigeration and preservation they spoil quickly — a small, morale-boosting luxury on a station otherwise stocked with pouches and cans.

Menus, Culture and Comfort

Astronauts help design their own menus before launch, rating hundreds of items in tasting sessions so mission planners can build roughly a week-long rotating cycle tailored to each crew member. Holidays are marked too: crews have celebrated Thanksgiving with thermostabilised turkey and candied yams, and shared national dishes across the multinational crew.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who flew with the Canadian Space Agency, did much to popularise the everyday reality of eating in orbit through his widely watched videos. For those who want to see the real hardware up close, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum displays historic food packaging, tubes and trays from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes.

Myths Worth Retiring

Myth: Astronauts eat that crunchy, freeze-dried “astronaut ice cream” sold in gift shops. In reality, freeze-dried ice cream is rarely if ever flown — it crumbles badly, and crews far prefer proper frozen or thermostabilised treats when available. The novelty product is largely a souvenir invention.

Myth: Tang was created by NASA for the space programme. Tang was a commercial drink mix already on sale before it flew on John Glenn’s 1962 flight. NASA used it, which made it famous, but the agency did not invent it.

Myth: All space food is squeezed from tubes. That was true only in the earliest missions. Today astronauts eat with spoons from open pouches, and the tube is essentially a museum artefact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can astronauts drink coffee in space?

Yes. For years coffee came as a rehydratable powder sipped through a straw from a sealed pouch. In 2015 an espresso machine called the ISSpresso was installed on the station, letting crews brew a proper cup, and specially designed “space cups” use surface tension to let astronauts drink from an open rim without the liquid floating away.

How do astronauts keep food from floating away?

Meals are eaten from pouches and containers held to a tray that straps to a wall, the leg or a lap. Utensils and packets are secured with elastic, Velcro and magnets, and sticky or moist foods tend to cling to the spoon well enough to eat. Anything that drifts off is chased down quickly, since loose debris is a real hazard.

Is space food nutritionally complete?

It is designed to be. Mission dietitians plan menus to meet calorie and nutrient targets, with particular attention to vitamin D (there is no sunlight-driven synthesis behind the station’s shielding), calcium and iron, because bone and muscle loss are ongoing concerns in microgravity. Crews also take supplements and have their intake monitored throughout a mission.

More The Love Space Guides

The Love Space Guide is a numbered series — one tightly focused subject at a time, each with its own downloadable collectible edition. Guide № 001 is The Apollo 11 Moon Landing, Guide № 002 is How the International Space Station Actually Works, Guide № 003 is The Voyager Golden Record, Guide № 004 is Why Rockets Launch From the Equator, Guide № 005 is The Mars Rovers, This is Guide № 006. More editions are on the way.