Check out the astronauts’ stellar menu. Screenshot from NASA by Corinne Reichert/CNET. Astronaut meals: no longer just Tang and Space Food Sticks. NASA has revealed the menu for the Artemis II astronauts, and it looks pretty appealing. The crew will have access to over 10 beverage options, such as coffee, mango-peach smoothies, green tea, apple cider, lemonade, pineapple drink, cocoa, and breakfast drinks in chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry flavors. Among the most frequent foods are tortillas, wheat flatbread, vegetable quiche, barbecued beef brisket, mango salad, blueberry granola, macaroni and cheese, tropical fruit salad, nutty couscous, broccoli au gratin, spicy green beans, almonds, cashews, and butternut squash cauliflower. Additionally, NASA notes that the astronauts can add heat to their meals with five varieties of hot sauce available onboard. Culinary flavorings available include maple syrup, chocolate spread, peanut butter, spicy mustard, strawberry jam, honey, cinnamon, and almond butter. Desserts consist of cookies, chocolate, pudding, cake, candy-coated almonds, and cobbler. And no, they’re not taking flavor pills or slurping sandwiches from tubes, as depicted in old sci-fi shows. “Orion spacecraft food is ready-to-eat, rehydratable, thermostabilized, or irradiated,” states NASA. The crew rehydrates food and drinks using Orion’s potable water dispenser and warms meals with a compact, briefcase-style food heater when required.
