What was the first fruit eaten on the moon? 

Discover strange but true facts about astronaut food and the first meal on the Moon. 

For their first meal on the Moon, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong pulled out a packet of food from the lunar module. But what did they eat? NASA

We’ve all heard the story of the Moon landing. President John F. Kennedy challenged NASA to reach the Moon before the 1960s ended, and in July 1969, the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon.

As he stepped onto the lunar surface, astronaut Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

On the mission, which lasted more than 195 hours, the three Apollo 11 astronauts had to eat multiple times. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin also ate the first meal on the Moon during their lunar landing. 

But what was the first food eaten in space? What was the first fruit eaten on the Moon? And how has astronaut food changed since the 1960s?

What Was the First Food Eaten in Space?

In 1962, John Glenn spent five hours in space on his tiny Friendship 7 capsule. During the mission, Glenn became the first American to eat in space.

At the time, NASA wasn’t sure whether astronauts could eat in space. Would digestion work in zero gravity? Could the body absorb nutrients while orbiting the Earth?

To test the questions, NASA sent mashed up, tasteless slurries on the missions after reviewing Army survival ration research. The food had to be as compact as possible to fit in the capsules, and it couldn’t require heat or refrigeration. 

So what was the first food eaten in space? Glenn dined on a tube of pureed beef with vegetables, plus applesauce.

On a 5-hour space flight in Feb. 1962, John Glenn squeezed beef and vegetables from a tube to see whether people could digest food in space. Smithsonian Institution

Glenn’s mission proved that astronauts could eat in space. And it also changed the foods sent to space. 

While the Mercury astronauts ate pureed foods in tubes, Project Gemini introduced new ways to send food to space. For the first time, astronauts could add water to freeze-dried food, thanks to on-board water systems. That opened a new frontier of freeze dried treats, vacuum sealed until astronauts would rehydrate them in space with a water gun. 

Gemini astronauts could add water to their food pouches. This meal included a beef sandwich, peaches, and strawberry cereal cubes. Smithsonian Institute

“Mercury astronauts had to endure bite-sized cubes, freeze-dried powders, and semi-liquids stuffed in aluminum tubes,” NASA admitted in 1986. “Most agreed the foods were unappetizing and disliked squeezing the tubes.”

Smuggling a Sandwich to Space

Gemini mission meals consisted of a freeze-dried main course, a dehydrated dessert, and a dried vegetable. Options included chicken and vegetables or shrimp cocktail, while the dessert might be butterscotch pudding.

Space rations “came in plastic bags,” said Gemini astronaut Gus Grissom, “and we had to insert a water gun into the bag and squirt liquid inside to reconstitute them.”

But astronaut John Young wanted something a little fresher. So he smuggled a corned beef sandwich onto one mission.

“I hid a sandwich in my spacesuit,” Young told Life in 1965. 

Moments before taking off on the Gemini III mission in 1965, astronaut John Young inspected his helmet. He may have already hidden the sandwich in his spacesuit. NASA

But the sandwich nearly sunk the mission. When the astronauts got hungry, Young pulled out the contraband sandwich. “Let’s see how it tastes,” Young told Grissom. “Smells, doesn’t it?” 

When Grissom bit into the corned beef on rye, “crumbs of rye bread started floating all around the cabin.” And even small crumbs can destroy the delicate equipment needed for space missions. 

In front of a Congressional hearing, a NASA administrator promised Congress, “We have taken steps … to prevent recurrence of corned beef sandwiches in future flights.”

The Apollo Mission Menu

The Apollo missions overhauled the menu when it came to astronaut food. For the first time, astronauts could eat rehydrated food with a spoon rather than from a tube. 

Charles Bourland, a NASA food scientist, helped create the menu for the Apollo missions. The astronauts might eat lobster bisque, tuna salad, or beef stew. Classics of the 1960s era like pot roast, ham salad, and pineapple fruitcake made the journey to space.

One Apollo 11 meal made the journey to space and returned to Earth. This pouch contained freeze-dried chicken and rice, which astronauts would rehydrate with hot or cold water. Smithsonian Museum

And when it came to beverages, Apollo astronauts sipped grape punch, coffee, and grapefruit juice. Treats included peach ambrosia, butterscotch pudding, and brownies.

Each astronaut received a pre-planned menu that provided 2,800 calories of nutrient-dense food each day. And since Earth’s time zones didn’t matter in space, the astronauts ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a rotation. 

Breakfast on the Moon

On the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong and Aldrin spent over 21 hours on the Moon, so they had to eat. Yet what meal would be fitting for the momentous occasion?

After taking photographs on the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin broke bread––but metaphorically, not literally. Their first meal was bacon cut into cubes, peaches, sugar cookies, pineapple-grapefruit juice, and coffee.

Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong spent nearly a day on the moon. To fuel themselves, the astronauts ate bacon and peaches. NASA

What was the first fruit eaten on the moon? Peaches. But it easily could have been apricots, fruit cocktail, or pineapple. Those fruits were all on the Apollo mission menu. 

NASA didn’t plan out the first lunar meal––they had more important things to worry about. Instead, the lunar module had several different meals on a rotating schedule, and the bacon-peaches-cookies meal just happened to be the first on the rotation after landing on the Moon. 

As a result, breakfast was the first meal on the Moon, and peachers were the first fruit eaten on the Moon. 

Evolving Astronaut Food

During the Apollo missions, astronauts spent long periods of time on the Moon. As a result, NASA added a water pouch and straw inside spacesuits so that astronauts could drink on the job. For the Apollo 15 mission, astronauts carried apricot food bars inside their helmets for a quick snack on the lunar surface.

After the Apollo era, space food changed dramatically. The 1970s saw the first space stations that carried galleys to prepare food. For the first time, astronauts could bring frozen foods to space, so they could enjoy ice cream without the freeze drying.

Astronauts had to protect elaborate command modules, like this one on the Apollo 11 mission, from crumbs. That limited their food options. Smithsonian Institute

By the 2010s, the International Space Station offered fresh produce to astronauts, including veggies grown in space.

But even today, astronauts avoid eating bread in space, since the crumbs pose a threat. Instead, they eat tortillas. 


For more strange and fascinating stories from history, check out Bruce Wilson’s book Strange but True Stories: Fascinating Facts, Astonishing Trivia, and Conversation Starters from History, available in ebook, paperback, or audiobook.

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