To this day, there is a lot of curiosity about the astronauts' routine, nutrition, studies and exercise. One of these doubts is usually: what do they eat before travel into space? Today we are going to clear this up once and for all. Find out now which astronauts last meal before space travel and why it was chosen.
Read more: See what happens to astronauts' bones when they return to Earth
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A very specific meal was chosen as the ideal one to be consumed in the last hours on Earth.
It all started with a tradition. In 1961, Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr., a NASA astronaut, started the tradition of eating steaks and eggs with tea and orange juice. The flight that followed the meal resulted in the arrival of the first American into space by means of the suborbital Freedom 7. He spent 9 days and 17 minutes up there.
Among the reasons for this to be the chosen meal, the amount of proteins that help with satiety stands out. This was an essential factor in the face of the need to ration the amount of food until returning to the planet.
In addition, the food was also determined due to the low amount of fiber. Although known for the feeling of satiety, they are difficult to digest by the body. In this way, bowel movements are stimulated. This would not be interesting because of the inconvenience for astronauts to use the bathroom during extraterrestrial travel.
On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 space mission carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was completed: they finally reached the moon. What did these crew eat before traveling? Steak, eggs, tea and juice.
Although advances in nutrology have been evident since the 1960s, astronauts continue to eat this meal, either as a form of homage or as a tradition and belief in a good omen.
But the tradition doesn't stop there: space travelers participate in several other rituals before traveling.
These include signing their dorm doors, being spun around by other employees in a swivel chair, and even imitating a behavior of Yuri Gagarin – the first man to step into space –, which is basically interrupting the path to the ship, before launch, to use the bathroom.
With so many risks involved in space travel, surely repeating in the footsteps of successful astronauts can really make you feel better, doesn't it?
