Food For Space

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31863, 16 December 1968, Page 17

Food For Space

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) HOUSTON, Dec. 15. When it conies to eating, the astronauts flying to the moon this Christmas are easier men to please than the earth-orbiting crew of Apollo 7, United Press International reports. Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders will not be eating the way they do at home, but they will be eating the foods they like best AU three Apollo crew chose the same menu, 35 separate items ranging from cheese and crackers to spaghetti and meat sauce. The powdered and freezedried foods are packed in clear plastic bags. To eat this food, the astronauts mix it with hot or cold water inside the bag and squeeze the resulting mush-like mixture into their mouths. They also have bite-size bits of dry food. Dry bites and wet mush may not sound too delicious, but the astronauts say this food tastes very much like it would if it had been cooked at home. It was harder to please the tastes of the Apollo 7 crew, Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele

and Walt Cunningham, who flew America’s first three-man space mission in October. They each selected a separate menu from more than 60 space foods and drinks available. ~ ~' ' Once they got in space, the Apollo 7 crew found their high-calorie diet was too rich and sweet. And they discovered that repeated meals containing highly spiced foods could quickly become unpleasant. Two of Apollo B’s crew, Frank Borman and James Lovell, spent two weeks in 1965 eating space food aboard the record-setting Gemini 7. From their experience,, and from the recommendations of the Apollo 7 commander. Captain Schirra, the Apollo 8 men picked a much milder diet. They requested just one change in the way the food was prepared. To get more energy-producing calories, extra sugar had been added to the fruit drinks, in the Apollo 7 menu. Borman requested that they contain less sugar so they would not be so sticky-sweet. The Apollo 7 crew reported that a few of their food bags burst open, but space officials decided after checking that no changes were needed in the Apollo 8 food bags.