![]() ![]() ![]() The Skylab mission, which launched in 1973, had even more of the comforts of home. As Apollo 8 circled the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, the crew even feasted on fruitcake. The Apollo crew was able to dine on bacon squares, cornflakes, beef sandwiches, chocolate pudding and tuna salad. These flexible plastic or aluminum foil pouches kept food moist enough so that it didn't have to be rehydrated. The Apollo mission also introduced thermostabilized pouches called wetpacks. To rehydrate the food, the astronauts simply injected water into the package with a water gun. Freeze-drying preserved the food for the flight without compromising the flavor. The food was freeze-dried, meaning that it was cooked, quickly frozen and then put in a vacuum chamber to remove the water. The astronauts were able to choose from a wider variety of foods, including shrimp cocktails, turkey bites, cream of chicken soup and butterscotch pudding. There were also bite-sized cubes of compressed and dehydrated foods that were rehydrated by the saliva in the astronauts' mouths.īy the time the Gemini mission launched in 1965, the food had gotten a bit more palatable. Most were semi-liquids that were squeezed from tubes and sucked up through straws. The first space foods were unappetizing, to say the least. But by the early 1960s, John Glenn and the astronauts of Project Mercury were staying out for longer durations and had to eat. Because the first space flights lasted just a few minutes, there wasn't much need to carry food onboard. ![]()
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