The Artemis 2 crew will feast on 189 food items including five different types of hot sauces, mango salad, beef brisket and more than 10 beverages
23:09, 05 Mar 2026Updated 23:11, 05 Mar 2026
NASA’s Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen (Image: Getty Images)
NASA has unveiled the menu that its four astronauts will eat on their upcoming mission to the moon.
The Artemis 2 crew will feast on 189 food items, each one carefully selected by the space agency, on their 10-day interstellar expedition.
The crew are going to make the trip in style, with a menu that boasts five different types of hot sauces and more than 10 beverages, including lemonade, apple cider and vanilla, chocolate and strawberry “breakfast drinks”. There will be enough coffee on board for approximately 43 cups, or just over one cup for each crew member per day.
NASA has released the menu for the moon mission(Image: Nasa)
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“With no resupply, refrigeration, or late-load capability, all meals must be carefully selected to remain safe, shelf-stable, and easy to prepare and consume in NASA’s Orion spacecraft,” the space agency said.
“Food selections are developed in coordination with space food experts and the crew to balance calorie needs, hydration, and nutrient intake while accommodating individual crew preferences.”
The Artemis 2 mission is set to be the first crewed spaceflight around the moon and beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 made the trip in 1972.
Although the ship lacks refrigeration, meaning fresh foods are out, some vegetables that don’t spoil can be brought along on the trip. The crew will enjoy butternut squash and blueberries as well as a mango salad, according to the menu released by Nasa.
The SLS rocket with an Orion capsule, part of the Artemis 2 mission, being transported back to the Vehicle Assembly Building(Image: CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA/Shutterstock)
As well as veggies, the intrepid spacefarers will be able to chow down on barbecued beef brisket, which will be dehydrated when it’s brought on board. There will also be 58 tortillas taken into space, as well as spicy mustard, strawberry jam and almond butter.
NASA said the foodstuffs had been carefully chosen for shelf life, food safety, nutritional value, crew preference, and compatibility with Orion’s mass, volume, and power requirements.
“Foods must be easy to prepare and consume in microgravity, minimize crumbs, and remain safe and stable throughout the mission. The crew provided input well before the meals were packed for the test flight,” it said.
On a typical mission day – excluding launch and reentry – astronauts have scheduled time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each astronaut is allotted two flavored beverages per day, which may include coffee. Options are limited as every gram of weight on the spacecraft means more fuel is needed to heave it out of Earth’s atmosphere.
Crew members sample, evaluate, and rate all foods on the standard menu during preflight testing, and their preferences are balanced with nutritional requirements, NASA said.
The spacecraft does not come with many kitchen facilities, the agency said. “Food aboard Orion is ready-to-eat, rehydratable, thermostabilized, or irradiated. The crew uses Orion’s potable water dispenser to rehydrate foods and beverages and a compact, briefcase-style food warmer to heat meals as needed,” NASA explained.
The four astronauts recruited for the mission are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Artemis 2 is due to launch on April 1 after the previous launch date, set for earlier this month, had to be rescheduled.