What the First Astronauts Ate - Food in Space 

CORRECTION! John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, Alan Shepard was the first American to get to space. Thanks to Factor for sponsoring this video: Use code TASTINGHISTORY50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box plus 20% off your next box at bit.ly/47TL1yd!

That reminds me of a sci fi convention where my sister was in charge of the hospitality (snacks and such). As we had no money for soda, we made a big industrial sized jug of Tang. Since it was the year Glenn went back to space, we covered our impoverished butts by calling it "The John Glenn Celebratory Tang Toast"

One dude invented Tang, Cool Whip, and Pop Rocks. William A. Mitchell you legend.

My 3 favourite things in these videos: a) somehow fitting the hardtack **clack clack** into any video b) Max's face when he doesn't like the food during tasting c) the food history / anecdotes :3

Hello, Max. I can add a little to your story. I studied food, nutrition and dietetics at UC Berkeley from 1970-1975, and this subject came up. Our professors helped determine what astronauts (and soldiers) needed and the specifications were turned over to the food scientists. Berkeley's recommendation was to send orange juice which was served at most American breakfast tables. However, it did not reconstitute in zero gravity. Tang was chosen because it was similar to orange juice and mixed easily in space. For years after, nutritionists had to counter the idea that Tang and orange juice were equally nutritious. Tang was astronaut food, for technical reasons, but, it does not have the same nutritional benefits of real juice.

I absolutely love the hoops that Max goes through to include the Hardtack joke in as many episodes as possible. Please never stop this.

13:03 like carcinization (all animals eventually evolve into crabs), all travel food evolves into hardtack

Side note on Cool Whip. I learned about this while working as a contractor for NY factory. There are different kinds of Cool Whip. A sweeter version goes to Canada and a version with less air whipped in was made for transportation to the west coast- less air to prevent containers popping when they go over the Rockies

Speaking of the flavor of Tang: when my brother served in Vietnam, he asked our mother to send Tang because the water didn't taste good and he needed something to mask it.

When I was in high school, we had an astronaut come to the school and give a talk about the space program. After the address, he took questions, and someone asked if they really used Tang. I will never forget his reply. "Unfortunately." 🤣

There are only two options of Tang dilution in any given glass of water: 1. the shadow of an orange passed over this glass an hour ago, 2. holy ascorbic acid frag grenade!!

Freeze drying is a fairly complete form of dehydration, the actual reason the texture is preserved is that the product is first frozen and then vacuumed dry, in the process the ice sublimates directly into vapor and doesn't boil, combined with the fact the cells are frozen stiff, it all results in no tears and ruptures of the cell structure within foods.

I'm actually a russian speaker and the bits about cosmonauts are great! Minor correction about the dried fish: it's vobla, not volba. Also, my granddad used to bite into raw onions, he was military guy from a small Siberian village and saw this as normal, very manly :)

Holy crap. This could lead to the weirdest collaboration video ever: Tasting History + the Hydraulic Press channel = potential banana Space-Cereal.

I never had Tang pie, but my aunt used to make what she called "Chemical Pie" using bottled lime and lemon juice and sweetened condensed milk in a graham cracker crust. The acid in the citrus juice polymerized the milk proteins, and that's all there was to it.

Love the continuation of Pokémon plushies matching the theme in the background. This time Palkia, the Pokémon that can distort space

When I was a kid, my grandmother would make us “Russian tea.” It was a mix of Tang, lemonade powder, ice tea powder, sugar, cinnamon, and whole cloves you would add hot water to. I believe it is a twisted take on the Russian custom to serve tea with lemon. It is something I enjoy even now when I want something hot but fruity in the winter!

8:55, back in like 2007 I got to go to a “Lunch with an astronaut” at Kennedy Space Center, and the two astronauts there were John Young and Charlie Duke. They get to the Q&A portion and this old guy gets the microphone and asks “How did you get that corned beef sandwich past me?” The gentleman was none other than Gunter Wendt, an engineer that would strap the astronauts into their seats. It was probably the most interesting interaction I’ve ever seen. Edit: Ok here’s how he did it, there was an accomplice, Wally Schirra, had picked up the sandwich and slipped it to Young after he had been suited up, it was tucked in a pocket in his pressure suit and since he had already been approved by the other technicians suiting him up Wendt was none the wiser.

Tang may be the astronaut's drink but we all know that prune juice is a warrior's drink

The “Tang” face needs to be a stock clip going forward when Max encounters anything particularly sour/tangy 😂

I’m so sorry, Max, but the first bite you take of creations you don’t enjoy is wonderful. Makes me laugh every time. Oh, and “hard tack” never gets old. 😂😂😂❤

More of a drinking history thing: I know of a cocktail made for the moon landing in '69. A bartender at the Savoy American bar in London came up with a cocktail: the moonwalk that has grand marnier, grapefruit juice, and rose water. It was shared with NASA and reportedly was the first thing Buzz Alderan and Niel Armstrong drank after returning to Earth.

The soviet Cosmonaut playing a prank on his American counterpart during such a monumental historical moment has got to be one of the most wholesome things in history. That's fucking hilarious.

I love that the pie is basically a triumph of American artificial food, very 50-60s! About Gemini, it might be that NASA went for the latin pronunciation (after all it's a latin word), which would indeed be 'nee' and not 'ni' at the end -although in latin the g would be a hard one (as in 'go')

The photos of Skylab look incredible! It looks like it was definitely an inspiration for the interiors of the Nostromo in Alien.

As someone who was around during the 60s, I can certify that Tang Pie was not popular. Tang itself, however, was popular. Supposedly every mission has been sent up with Tang since the 1970s at the request of the astronauts, especially those who grew up in the space age.

I was only a kid when the Cool Whip pies were popular, but I can tell you this: They need to go into the freezer to set up properly. Then either slice with a knife heated under very hot water, or thaw slightly in the fridge, before cutting and serving. Great episode as always, thank you!

To whomever that wrapped the teaspoon(15:45), and labelled it as WRAPPED TEASPOON: thank you. We would be lost without it.

The pause at, “I haven’t had them in 30 years.” I felt that. In my soul.

I was an army transporter in Iraq. Some of the camps we went to had frozen meat and little charcoal grills. Unfortunately, spices were harder to find. Tang makes an excellent steak in a pinch.

Viktor Patsayev and his crew died just days later, when their capsule depressurized just prior to reentry. RIP.

Somehow I'd love to have Max interview surviving people who were at historical events and try food with them from those events. Like an Apollo mission astronaut eating the food. Bonus points if we can get Buzz Aldrin (I think he is the only one still alive) to try a replica of the fruit cake

Omg Chunks from Starfield has real life inspiration. Never knew NASA actually made food cubes!

My cousin studied astrobiology, which focuses on growing food crops in space, and this involved a study on growing chili peppers in a simulation of the space station to make sure that the peppers were still spicy because the effects of being in space on astronauts’ taste buds means that they go through a lot of hot sauce and other spicy foods. Their fiancé recently got a post-doc position studying growing potatoes in space.

For anyone who would like a pie recipe that is similar but not Tang flavored, I offer my mother's recipe for Evaporating Pie: one 3-oz pkg. strawberry jello 2/3 c. boiling water 8 standard-size ice cubes 8 oz. Cool Whip, thawed (Do not use whipped cream.) 3/4 cup strawberries, chopped small 2/3 cup blueberries, chopped 8” or 9” graham cracker pie shell Directions: 1. Dissolve jello in boiling water and stir until no granules are left. Add in ice & stir until jello begins to thicken. Remove any ice remaining. 2. Whisk jello together with Cool Whip. Add fruit. You may leave some swirls of Cool whip. 3. Pour into pie shell and refrigerate until firm.

I'm 57 and we drank MASSIVE amounts of Tang as kids . Along with various powdered chocolate, strawberry and malted milk . Or soda. I honestly dont think I drank any water except the occasional 5 gulps from a hot garden hose during the summer .

I will again acknowledge how Matt uses his Pokémon plushies each episode. It’s like a game of where’s Waldo but with Pokémon!

FYI, on making water: Yes, it was the Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell that was used to produce electricity for the craft, with a byproduct of water. This was used on the shuttle as well as the capsule craft. The ISS and other Space stations on the other hand use recycled wastewater (yesterday's piss is today's coffee), which was highly filtered to be purer than tap water in the US.

Taking a recording of his wife's voice saying she was bringing them a home cooked meal. 😂😂😂 Someone at NASA must have had an aneurysm that day.

"Anybody want some Tang?" That 70's show.

Discovered your videos a week ago and have been watching several every day. I don't think a single one has gone by without the mention of "hard tack" and that dedication is keeping me around for the long haul. I also love that you don't lie about your taste preferences.

Some folks do eat raw onions like apples. I'm told my great-grandparents, Ukrainian immigrants who came to the US in 1912, enjoyed doing so. And some folks around the world still do so today.

It is always a sign that Max is skeptical about the Tasting part of a Tasting History episode when he has a ready made meal provider be the sponsor. It's like "just in case this piece of history is not... palatable, better have a good meal ready". And DAMN, that story about the banana cereal block is really the confirmation of the proverb: "All travel rations come from Hardtack, and to Hardtack they return". Somehow, I think humanity has yet to outlive (pun intended) the psychological endurance of Hardtack.

Great job, Max! So informative! Shows that you did a lot of research and I appreciated hearing that history. Thank you so very much. You are one of a kind and your channel is superb.

Two things surprised me.1. You don't like key lime pie. and 2. They gave cosmonauts prunes in space. That's like people trapped in an elevator and prunes are sent down to them for food until they are rescued.

“Tang!” Loved Max’s reaction to his first bite. We drank Tang as part of a spiced tea mix as kids anytime we felt bad. It has a special place in my heart

That onion (and likely the lemon as well) was highly likely used as "zakuska" to go with some smuggled in alcohol. I guess they would not want to have the later part on the official report, but it explains a) why onion and b) why he enjoyed it more.

4:36 Protip to anyone making this: 3/4 of a cup of Tang powder is the "makes 2 quarts" line in the lid.

I always learn so much from you!

There was one episode of "Chopped" where 'Astronaut Ice Cream' was a secret ingredient, and Ted Allen noted that it was only ever sent into space once, because the astronauts ended up disliking it so much.

I had no idea Tang was used to create things aside the drink that made my mouth burn during childhood.

Two additional notes: 1. John Young (the same guy with the corned beef sandwich) later went on a rant about how the orange drink (implied to be Tang) was giving him gas, not realizing that his microphone was on. 2. Pureed food in tubes is still used today by U-2 pilots.

I love that you smiled through the whole "I don't like it". Best part of being an adult, you don't have to sit there and suffer through a bad meal.

That explains why all the food on Star Trek TOS looked like weird multicolored cubes. They probably just looked at actual astronaut food and went "Right. Food in space is square. Got it."

Fun fact: Owen Garriott, the guy who brought the recording of his wife up into space is the father of Richard Garriott, the creator of Ultima and Ultima Online, some of the first RPG and MMOs in history. Richard would also be one of the first private citizens to go to space.

Reminds me of when I was in boy scouts back in the 80s and 90s. Every camping trip we went on we always had tang and link breakfast sausages for breakfast and I can't stand tang and breakfast sausages so I eventually started bringing my own breakfast foods whenever I went on a scout camp trip.

I grew up with Tang. When we couldn't get real orange juice my Mom gave us Tang instead and told us "If it's good enough for the astronauts, it's good enough for us." I loved it, haven't had it in awhile, but this is a super easy "no bake" dessert that would be perfect for the summer. I'm going to buy some next time I go shopping and make it. Thanks Max for this awesome recipe.

Grew up in the 1960s drinking Tang, didn't realize it still existed until a few years ago, and now my old self, who has to take a fiber supplement now and then, mixes it with Tang. It's like a bedtime treat. Now and then mom would make a lemon meringue pie. Not having money to blow she'd put all the egg yolks into a Tang jar to use later. Once one of my brothers (probably 6 or 7 at the time) saw the jar in the fridge, thought it was Tang, and took a big swig; could hear him yelling all the way out to the street. 🤣

U2 Spy Plane pilots actually still eat food through toothpaste-like tubes. They basically wear astronaut suits and they stick the tube into their helmets to their mouths. I hear people say the tube food is actually pretty good. The food is also specially formulated to help prevent the need to go to the bathroom since there's no going number 2 on the plane.

My great aunt made this for me when I was a kid and I loved it. I was wanting to make this again for my daughter and myself :). Thank you for posting this video.

This has become literally my favorite channel. Fabulous content Max. And I was thrilled to hear when you said that your book ships internationally (I’m an expat in Thailand). I don’t know when I’ll order it… I’m po’, lol… but I definitely will at some point. Looking forward to getting my hands on it.

Quick factoid. John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. But, the first American to make it INTO space was Alan Shepard. His Mercury basically went up and then came back down in one quick ellipse. In fact, Gus Grissom preceded Glenn into space too; with another up and down flight.

Thanks for showing Joe Kerwin. I flew with him on the KC-135. He had to use a rehydrating machine to rehydrate a bowl of corn flakes with dried milk. It was covered with plastic film with a slit in it. He ate it during the zero gee part of the parabola. He did not recommend it for spaceflight.

I like that Max didn't just say this is gross, he said more like "I don't like this, but if you like key lime pie You might like it." Tang is tangy. . .

It is very nice to see someone say that that dish is not something for them / is something for them - being this authentic!!! I love it!

The hard tack clip never gets old! Every time it’s in one of the videos, I go back and watch it a couple times before moving on with the rest of the episode. It always gives me a giggle!

It’s worth mentioning that Alexei Leonov was the first human to spacewalk/conduct an EVA (Extravehicular Activity) in 1965 from Voskhod 2. His spacesuit ballooned from internal pressure against the vacuum of space that he was in danger of being stranded outside the spacecraft. The problems he encountered during his EVA would remain secret until the end of the Cold War. Had the Soviet N1 program been successful, Leonov had been selected to be the first human to land on the Moon. Instead, his second flight into space was as the commander of Soyuz 19, the Soviet half of the historic Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975. Leonov was not only a space pioneer but also the first artist in space. In 1975, he did portraits of the Apollo crew during the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Author Arthur C. Clarke named the Soviet spacecraft in his novel, 2010: Odyssey Two, after the legendary cosmonaut.

When I think about Tang, I remember that one time, when I was driving a long distance and had to stay awake, I stopped and took a heaping tablespoon of dry instant coffee and washed it down with a cup of double-strength Tang. With all that caffeine and sugar, it DID keep me awake

I enjoyed this video so much! Very fun and entertaining! The entire transportation series is great. And i actually really love key lime pie (and sour foods in general) so i might give this recipe a try!😊

Pillsbury came out with a product called "Space Food Sticks" which were quite the rage between myself and other kids at the time when the Apollo missions fascinated us. They came in chocolate, peanut butter and I think perhaps vanilla flavors from what I can remember. Many of the kids that I went to school with at the time were also involved in model rocketry as well.

If you’re looking for a meal for car rides may I suggest a version of Boiled Supper my grandparents used to make on long car trips from the maritimes to Montreal. Imagine a big o’l Chev with large engine compartment with loads of space to fix a big aluminum pot next to the engine block. Into the pot went a cut up pot roast, carrots, potatoes, turnips & onion together with some water, salt, pepper, & I believe both garlic & celery powder. The pot was encased in 2 or 3 layers of tin foil then tucked into a space next to the engine & some wire to hold it in place. After a long few hours on the road, my grandparents would find a picnic spot get the steaming pot out from under the hood & serve up a hot & hearty boiled supper.

We made this pie, and we LOVE it! Hooray for Tang, and thank you for sharing this recipe.

nasa being mad about a corned beef sandwhich made my day

TANG! 22:45 You look like a kid who ate their first black licorice! 🤣🤣 Good job keeping it down!

I remember that Tang was so invested in the space program that towards the end of the Apollo program, you could buy bottles of Tang that had miniature lunar rovers attached to it. You would wind it up and it would go across the floor. We made glasses of Tang, but what I really used to use Tang for was Tang toast. We would toast (with or without butter) and pour enough Tang on top to make a decent layer and eat it like that. Yum! U-2 pilots still eat their meals when flying (a typical mission can last up to 11 to 12 hours) by eating things out of big tubes, like the first astronauts.

Am I wrong in thinking this is basically just an orange chiffon pie? It looks lovely, and so simple! All the wet and dry ingredients are premixed, wonderful for that busy housewife preparing for that next Tupperware party!

It took me a moment to realize the background plushie for this episode is Palkia, Sinnoh diety of space. Clever

I was born in 1960, and back then we were told that The Year 2000 was The Future. They told us we would have flying cars and jet packs and eat Tang Pie. They didn't tell us that half of the everyday tasks we did on all different kinds of technology would all be done on our phones, that going through airport security would take hours, or that everything would be made in China.

I always love and appreciate the props in the background that fit the theme of the video

you are very informative and that is also why this is such an enjoyable channel. G'day from Australia Maxi

Fun fact about Pop Rocks: They are used in the introductory chemistry lab at my university in a procedure that allows the students to capture and quantify the carbon dioxide in the bubbles. The hardest part is always keeping the students from trying to eat their candy packet before the experiment could start!

The hard tack clip gets me every time. It is so great.

Such an awesome episode. Thanks for taking a dive into space foods. That tang pie looks interesting and I do like key lime pie maybe I'll give it a go and see.

oh that look on yur face when you tried the pie, priceless in so many ways, you know it was good, your taste buds had something to say about it anyhow. still priceless, ive made tang pie and your reaction was the same but i still finished it off once i got accustomed to it. now imagine you are 200,000 miles away and this is desert, im sure you develop a taste for it. i still love the tase of tang, maybe it was just all the citric acid they used but it was still a good drink. thanks max, this was a really enjoyable video.

In about 1963, I attended a Girl Scout jamboree where one of the activities was to sample foods developed for astronauts to eat in space. I don't remember exactly what we had, but several of them were goo in a tube. It was a good lesson in how important texture can be in our enjoyment of food. No matter how much it tastes like roast beef, the purée is...odd. Not pleasant. Temperature, too, is a factor, because one item we sampled was freeze-dried strawberry ice cream, which tasted just like ice cream, but it was weird having it be room temperature. And yes, we got to try Tang. That was the first time I tried it, and I liked it. More than 60 years later, I still like it. That workshop is the thing I remember best from that jamboree. The NASA representative answered any questions we had, even the one about how the astronauts went to the bathroom. That was pretty bold in those days.

I love how honest you are with the flavor and if you like it or not. A lot of chefs on RU-vid act like everything they cook is the most amazing thing ever, even though their faces say different.

Food & history fusion par excellece. Thanks for the ongoing delightful content!

I adore the fact that the hardtack tap tap is never ever going away... your face while tapping them together!

My mom used to make a hot drink that we called “Russian tea” that was made with tang and a bunch of spices. I wish I still had that recipe.

Can I just say that I wholly appreciate how you often choose music befitting the culture/time period of whatever food/drink each video focuses on? Maybe most people don’t notice and is such a niche thing to point out but it delights me, and I’m not a music buff in any manner.

Tang pie was a wonderful treat during the hot summer days. It was a great treat with a gramcreaker crust and the cool whip dressed up with tang mixed in. Cool and tangy treat my grandmother made for us while we were hanging out from the summer. Till it was time to go home after our parent's came home from work. Are just a treat every so often when my city cousins stayed with us during the summer.

I used to go backpacking and I liked to drink. I took grain alcohol and Tang because that was the lightest things I could bring. Not doing any measuring, you could get a rough idea of how strong your drink was by how much it fizzed when you mixed it. Really kind of tasty and did the job.

I love how some things, being a novelty or less widespread, were seen as respectable cooking, and how that changed. Like those fancy jell-o dishes, tang pie, fanta cake, etc.

There was one other reason early astronauts ate less solid food: no toilet. It was particularly difficult for the Mercury and Gemini astronauts, as they were trapped in their spacesuits. The Apollo astronauts fared better out of the suits, but other than the CM Pilot who stayed alone in orbit during the moon landings, there was no privacy to take care of business.

I think this is the first time Max has outright said he didn't like a food on Tasting History. He normally focuses on the aspects he does like, but with this he just says he outright doesn't like it at all. That made me burst out laughing, I wasn't expecting it

i have had such a long day. i needed this video on space food you have no idea.

I'm a presenter and historian for NASA-JSC in Houston and was wishfully hoping you'd eventually do an episode on early spaceflight foods!! You've made my day, Max :D

I grew up during the moon landing era, and Tang was our breakfast drink. We didn't make anything like "Tang Pie," but couple of tablespoons or so made a pleasant orange flavor for sponge cake (and a delicate orange color). I still have my mother's 1960s McCall's cookbook with the Hot Milk Sponge Cake recipe. My mom actually bought me the astronaut food bars, which I ate for snacks like we have energy bars these days. Pop Rocks were THE hot trend when I was in 3rd grade near the Bicentennial...

Thank you so much for not only being such an amazing and dedicated chef. But for bringing the I from History into Cooking. If you had a full production TV show or RU-vid Special, even a Subscription Service slot on Amazon or something like Gordan Ramsey, Jamie Oliver and Akis Pertretzikis have, I reckon you would be #1. Because your food is great, it explains, shows and deep dives into the historical relevance and proper (or common) pronunciations of food. Aswell as the places it comes from, the earliest written records of the food and an unbiased but honest review on said cooked food. I want your channel to grow to the point where I can see it on Amazon Prime next to James May's Oh Cook or Our Man In Japan. And you get to travel the world, meet people and cook traditional dishes in historical places. I really want that for you and I'd love to see it. You and your channel deserves it. Thank you for teaching me the history of cooking aswell as how to cook. All the best from a fan in Australia. Cheers mate, all the best and I hope you get that Amazon deal 😁👍

I used to be a NASA affiliated museum curator, and space food was a normal topic for me to speak about. I found the most interest was in how you season food in space. Though why some of the hotter condiments were forbidden was also popular.