History of food in space is comparatively young compared to others. Nowadays, we get to see several space flights are being launched and people are frequently making their trips to space. But have we ever thought about their diet during the space flight? To my utter surprise, I found that at the beginning the food in space was not exactly similar to what we normally eat. These foods needed to be prepared by following certain technique and the astronauts did not have any chance to be picky for having their favorite food during the flight.  So, when and how it all started?

In case of the first few space flights, food was not required for the astronauts as these flights were only for few minutes. However, history of food in space took its first step in early 60s, when the astronauts of Project Mercury had to eat on board. What did they eat? Probably, no one would like to eat that for second time as the items were mostly semi-liquids and the eating process was to squeeze the food directly into the mouth from the tubes or sucking up using the straws. In addition to these, there were small, compressed and dehydrated food cubes. The astronauts had to hydrate these foods with their saliva before eating them.

However, the food in space became little better during the launch of Gemini mission in 1965. This time the astronauts had a chance to choose from a menu having delicacies like butterscotch pudding, chicken cream soup, turkey cubes, shrimp cocktails etc. These foods were cooked, immediately frozen and then kept inside of a vacuum container to take away the watery substance. The astronauts had to inject water in these foods for rehydrating and enjoying the authentic taste and flavor.

During the famous Apollo flight for landing in the moon, the astronauts were permitted to use hot water for rehydrating the food. In fact, there were some more changes made to the concept of food in space during this mission. For the first time, the astronauts could eat from a plastic container using a spoon, after injecting water inside the container. Moreover, certain foods were packed inside thermo-stabilized pouches made with plastic or aluminum foil. This method could keep the moisture of the food intact. As a result of these developments, the members of this mission could dine on a variety of choices like cornflakes, sandwiches, tuna salad, bacon squares, chocolate pudding, fruitcake etc.                                                                                                                             

By 1973, the food in space took a completely new shape, when the astronauts of the Skylab mission could enjoy their food on a large dining table having sitting arrangement. Skylab also carried a refrigerator in the space, which was filled up with a wide variety of delicious food items. They could even heat up their food on the food warmer trays before dining together.