What are NASA’s Artemis II astronauts eating? 58 tortillas, 43 cups of coffee and a lot of hot sauce

What are NASA’s Artemis II astronauts eating? 58 tortillas, 43 cups of coffee and a lot of hot sauce

By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron

Dining in space isn’t exactly a Michelin Star experience, but it is exciting. The Artemis II mission is no exception: the astronauts’ menu includes foods such as macaroni and cheese, beef brisket, broccoli au gratin—and 58 tortillas.

In all, the four crew members—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch—have a selection of 189 different menu items to choose from on their journey around the moon. Tortillas are among the most popular astronaut foods—in part because it’s simply easy to fill them, fold them up and eat them without bits floating off in the zero-g environment inside a spacecraft.

On Friday the crew’s breakfast menu included vegetable quiche, scrambled eggs, couscous with nuts, peaches and oatmeal. “There’s even a muffin being enjoyed today,” said NASA public affairs officer Leah Cheshier Mustachio in the agency’s livestream coverage of the mission. Coffee is also in high demand: NASA has allotted 43 cups of coffee for the crew—a little more than 10 cups per astronaut across the 10-day mission.

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Notably, the meals in this mission can be served warm thanks to a “briefcase-style” food warmer—the Apollo missions did not have this luxury.

Aside from coffee, the astronauts have at least nine other beverage choices, including lemonade, green tea and apple cider, as well as chocolate, vanilla and strawberry “breakfast drinks.” Each astronaut has two nonwater beverages allotted to them per day, according to NASA. There are also five varieties of hot sauce onboard and several desserts—mostly cookies and chocolate.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen also has five Canadian food products to remind him of home, according to the Canadian Space Agency. These include wild keta salmon bites, shrimp curry, strawberry lavender superseed cereal, maple cream cookies—and, yes, maple syrup.

The crew had “direct input” on the menu, including a series of taste tests, according to NASA. “Crew members sample, evaluate, and rate all foods on the standard menu during preflight testing, and their preferences are balanced with nutritional requirements and what Orion can accommodate,” the agency said.

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