When you enter the food lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the first thing you notice is that it doesn’t smell like a lab at all. It has a subtle barbecue scent. On plates bearing the iconic NASA worm logo, Xulei Wu, the lab manager for Space Food Systems, has arranged a spread that includes beef brisket, chicken in salsa, mac and cheese, braised red cabbage, a soft tortilla folded next to it, and a tiny cup of cherry-blueberry cobbler. Coffee is served alongside. To be honest, it resembles the menu of a respectable Texas roadside diner. The only strange thing is that it was all sealed in silver pouches, dried into something like cardboard, and waiting for heat and water fifteen minutes earlier. “They don’t really have plates in microgravity,” Wu remarks, sounding almost contrite.
Last year, the four Artemis II astronauts sat at this same table to sample what would be served on the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. The 189 items on the list may seem excessive, but keep in mind that they would be consuming them in capsules the size of two minivans for ten days. On the fourth day of the mission, Christina Koch told a group of Canadian schoolchildren that while eating vegetables is necessary even in space, there is, fortunately, macaroni and cheese to accompany them. It was a brief, nearly disposable line, but it made an impression unlike any press release.
It’s difficult to ignore how far this has progressed. The old images from the Gemini program depict test subjects sucking gravy and pot roast from aluminum tubes, resembling babies being fed a somber purée. Apollo 11 was already a step up; before sleeping on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin consumed coffee and cubed bacon. At the time, NASA’s own food scientists wrote in somewhat fussy 1969 prose that the lunar explorers were permitted to skip a scheduled rest period but not the meal. The energy was important. Morale was more important.
The science of preservation hasn’t really changed. Freeze-drying is freeze-drying. What has changed is that NASA appears to have finally acknowledged what restaurants have known for centuries: people who work long hours and are far from home require food that tastes like what they would like to eat. Strangely, astronauts’ sense of taste dulls in microgravity due to fluid shifts in the head and congestion that resembles a bad cold, so flavors must be pushed harder. Acid, spices, anything to pierce. The brisket on Wu’s table has a higher smoke content than one might anticipate from Earth. That’s for a reason.
Time is the greater issue than Artemis. No amount of cobbler in a pouch can sustain a three-year Mars mission. AI-controlled greenhouses, 3D-printed snacks, and even crops grown in soil that resembles Martian soil are all being developed in labs. There are parts of it that sound like science fiction, and they most likely will remain that way. However, as you watch Christina Koch eat a tortilla while floating sideways past a moonlit window, you begin to doubt that the strange thing is actually the food. It’s the space.
FAQs
Q1: What did the Artemis II astronauts actually eat in space?
They ate from a 189-item menu featuring dishes like barbecued beef brisket, chicken in salsa with tortillas, mac and cheese, braised red cabbage, and cherry-blueberry cobbler.
Q2: Who designs the food for NASA astronauts?
NASA’s Space Food Systems Lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston, managed by Xulei Wu, develops and tests every meal sent into space.
Q3: Why does space food need to taste stronger than regular food?
Astronauts’ sense of taste dulls in microgravity due to fluid shifts in the head, so dishes are seasoned more heavily with spices and acid to remain flavorful.
Q4: How is the food prepared and eaten aboard the Orion spacecraft?
Meals come sealed in airtight pouches, rehydrated with a potable water dispenser, and warmed in a compact onboard heater — no plates, since nothing stays put in microgravity.
Q5: What’s next for astronaut food beyond Artemis II?
Scientists are developing 3D-printed snacks, AI-powered greenhouses, and crops grown in extraterrestrial soil to support long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.
