Food in Space

Before Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley blasted off in May 2020 aboard SpaceX’s Endeavour, they had the traditional astronaut breakfast of steak and eggs. It’s one of NASA’s many food traditions, but for this particular breakfast at least, there was science behind the menu choice.

Steak and eggs washed down with orange juice, and notably tea, was served to the first American in space, Alan Shepard, on 5 May 1961 before his launch in Freedom 7. According to the NASA archive, no coffee was allowed 24 hours before the flight, as it might have kept Shepard awake, and he still wasn’t allowed any at breakfast because of its diuretic properties. The menu was designed by Beatrice Finkelstein of the Aerospace Medical Laboratory and contained little fibre to be ‘low residue’, which in medical parlance means