NASA’s Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders found a specially prepared Christmas dinner wrapped in foil and decorated with festive ribbons in their food locker. This was as close to a home cooked meal as NASA could get for a spaceflight at the time on Christmas day.
During their journey to the Moon, the trio was not very hungry, with Frank Borman eating the least of the three with just 881 calories on day two. Why? They found the food “unappetizing”, as it consisted of compressed, bite-sized items that had to be rehydrated. However, the Apollo 8 Christmas meal included a dehydrated grape drink, cranberry-applesauce, a wetpack containing turkey / gravy, and coffee. The game changer was the wetpack, a thermostabilized package of turkey and gravy that retained its normal water content without needing to be rehydrated.
- LEGO NASA Space Set - This adult LEGO set features the Space Shuttle Discovery and the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA’s 1990 STS-31 mission,...
- Solar System Exploration - Unlock the mysteries of our solar system with this engaging 2,354-piece project, packed with authentic details and...
- Shuttle Features Galore - The space shuttle model has an opening payload bay, retractable landing gear, opening cockpit, moving elevons, space arm,...
Food was one of the few creature comforts the crew had on the Apollo 8 flight, and this meal demonstrated the psychological importance of being able to smell, taste, and see the turkey prior to consuming their meal, something that was lacking in the first four days of the flight,” said Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, NASA Human Spaceflight Historian.
[Source]
