When Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, it was a momentous occasion. Upwards of 650 million people around the world sat in stunned silence and anticipation as two American astronauts took their first steps on Earth's satellite planet. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went back to the lunar module after their initial exploration, it wouldn't have surprised anyone if they feasted on dehydrated surf and turf, with glasses of floating champagne in celebration, but it wasn't beef or lobster on their plates, it was bacon.
Any bacon lover would agree that the salty, crunchy, porky, fatty food is completely appropriate for celebratory occasions (or any occasion, really), but the pork product likely wasn't chosen to be part of the astronauts' meal plan because they requested it. Rather, it traveled well in space. Figuring out which foods could be transported into and consumed in low-gravity conditions was just one large piece of the space travel puzzle for NASA scientists to figure out before Apollo 11.
Foods had to meet weight and volume limits, stay safe and edible without refrigeration, not be overly crumbly (fine crumbs could affect equipment), and offer enough calories and nutrition for the astronauts. Bacon checked all the boxes, as did peaches, strawberry cubes, and grape and orange drinks, which rounded out the meal Armstrong and Aldrin dined on after their moonwalk. Space food had already come a long way By the time of the Apollo missions, scientists and astron.