The TRUTH About Astronaut Ice Cream Revealed

If you grew up anytime between the late 1960s and now then you’ll remember how wild we went for astronaut ice cream. The texture left something to be desired here on earth, but we imagined space explorers stranded with this freeze-dried ice cream as their only source of sugar or joy. It was enough to bring a tear to your eye. But, the truth about this strange treat might take you for a loop.

The reality is that food developed for or by NASA was designed not only to be lightweight and efficient, which astronaut ice cream certainly is, but to also be the opposite of crumbly, which it is not. Tiny particles of food can float into delicate equipment in the zero gravity environment (or microgravity as it is more correctly called), so foods were chosen very carefully. What’s really crazy is that astronauts interviewed after the fact don’t even remember being offered astronaut ice cream on their missions! Which leads to an interesting question: did astronauts really eat astronaut ice cream in space?

Watch the video below to find out more about the suddenly mysterious astronaut ice cream. And, for more space foods we loved as kids click “Next Page” after the video.