Apollo 16 Flown Tuna Salad

Apollo 16 Flown Tuna Salad

This freeze-dried tuna salad was flown on Apollo 16. It is an example of rehydratable US space food. The Apollo missions were the first-time astronauts had access to hot water, helping to make the rehydration of freeze-dried food easier - and potentially tastier for some types of food. For this tuna salad, containing tuna, mayonnaise and pickle relish, the astronauts would have needed to add three ounces of cold water and leave for three to five minutes.

Apollo space food had coloured Velcro attached, allowing it to be secured to surfaces inside the spacecraft to avoid it floating about. Three Velcro colours were used: red, white and blue - to represent the American flag. The colours were also used to denote which crew member the food was designated for. Red for the Commander, white for the Command Module Pilot, and blue for the Lunar Module Pilot. In this case, this tuna salad has white Velcro - so they were intended for consumption by Ken Mattingly, who was making his first spaceflight.

Whirlpool Corporation were awarded the contract for making food for the Apollo missions. The company through its Space Division were able to freeze-dry food, ensuring that it retained its nutritional benefit and taste - helping to provide the necessary calorie intake for the astronauts. Freeze-drying a lot of the food on Apollo missions also removed moisture, therefore reducing weight - another benefit for space travel.

Web resources

• The History of Space Food