What Do Astronauts Eat?

In the early days of the U.S. space program, astronauts had to contend with freeze-dried powders and small cubes of food as well as gel-like liquids packaged in aluminum tubes. There wasn't a lot of flavour or choice either but eventually, when packaging improved, freeze-dried food had an expanded repertoire which came to include shrimp cocktail, butterscotch pudding and applesauce.

By the time NASA began its Apollo program in the early 1960s, hot water became available on missions and the hungry astronauts were able to rehydrate food easier and eat from a 'spoon bowl' - a plastic container which could be opened and eaten from. Food pouches came on board in the 1970s and those lucky astronauts had a menu of 72 different food items.