The Artemis II Orion spacecraft circled the moon and is now headed back to Earth. Its four crew members set a record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from our planet.
That is headline news. But you know what else is interesting? What they had for lunch.
189 Foods and Not a Refrigerator in Sight
The Orion is stocked with 189 different foods and drinks for its 10-day mission. That is more variety than most of our kitchens offer on any given Tuesday.
There is no refrigerator on board, though. Every item must be shelf-stable. Some foods are freeze-dried and rehydratable, think macaroni and cheese or shrimp curry with rice. Others are ready to eat right out of the package, like granola, cookies, and nuts.
Heat-stabilized foods are on the menu too, including salmon bites, a favorite of crew member Jeremy Hansen. And there are irradiated foods, which are exposed to safe radiation to extend shelf life and improve food safety. Barbecue beef brisket falls into that category.
The drink list includes more than 10 options: hot coffee (43 cups worth), green tea, cocoa, lemonade, a mango-peach smoothie, and three flavors of breakfast drink. Astronauts are allowed two non-water drink choices per day.
Five Kinds of Hot Sauce — and 58 Tortillas
Here is a fun detail. The crew has five different hot sauces on board. Why so many? Astronauts tend to get congested in space, which dulls their sense of taste. A little heat goes a long way up there.
And about those 58 tortillas, they are the bread of choice in space. Back in 1965, astronaut John W. Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich onto the Gemini III flight. He and fellow astronaut Gus Grissom ate it, but the rye bread crumbled into floating crumbs that could have damaged the ship’s instruments. That little incident caused a congressional hearing. Tortillas do not crumble.
How Do They Actually Eat Up There?
Freeze-dried foods come in vacuum-sealed pouches. Astronauts rehydrate them by adding hot or cold water through a small port on the side of the pouch. In the early days of space travel, only cold water was available. Hot water is a modern improvement.
Other foods come in flexible metallic pouches that can be heated in a warmer about the size of a briefcase. It plugs into the spacecraft’s power system and brings the food up to serving temperature.
When it is time to eat, the astronauts cut open the pouches with scissors and dig in with a spoon. Drinks must be sipped through a straw. Otherwise, a floating coffee ball tends to cause problems.
How Far We Have Come Since Apollo
If you remember watching the Apollo missions on TV, here is a little perspective. Those astronauts (flying between 1961 and 1972) mostly ate freeze-dried food, which was squeezed directly into their mouths through a tube. Later Apollo missions introduced the idea of eating right from an open pouch, like a bowl you hold in your hand.
The Apollo menu had about 70 food items to choose from. The Artemis II crew has nearly three times that many.
And do you remember Tang? That powdered orange drink was famously associated with the astronaut program. Those days are long gone. Today’s crew has hot coffee, smoothies, and a full condiment selection waiting for them.
Meals happen three times a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at scheduled times. On launch and reentry days, when the water system is shut down, the crew sticks to ready-to-eat items only.
It is a long way from a home-cooked meal. But for four people circling the moon, it sounds like they are eating pretty well.