Russian Space Food – Moscow Rye Bread

Russian Space Food – Moscow Rye Bread

This rye bread is an example of the kind of food eaten by cosmonauts on the Russian space station Mir. It has been vacuum packed to keep it fresh. The expiry date shown on the packet is 2 March 1998. Black rye bread is common in Russia as rye is able withstand the cold more than wheat.

The bread is in the form of bite sized cubes, which make it easy for the cosmonaut to break off small pieces to eat. This helps to reduce the risk of crumbs escaping in a weightless environment. Crumbs can be very dangerous on board a spacecraft as they could clog vital equipment. For this reason bread is generally avoided by NASA, who use tortillas instead.

Between 1986 and 2001 Mir operated in low Earth orbit and hosted over 100 individuals. It served as a microgravity research laboratory where cosmonauts could live and work on long duration missions. At the time, it was the largest artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, until it was succeeded by the International Space Station.

Creating space food for long duration missions is especially challenging, as it has to be lightweight and easy to store, stay fresh for long periods of time, provide the crew with all the calories and nutrients they need to stay healthy, and still be pleasant to eat.

Web resources

• The History of Space Food