They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but you're probably sticking with a fairly ordinary routine after you eat -- heading to work, cleaning the house, or spending time with friends. But what if you were going to space? You certainly wouldn't want to skip a big steak and eggs breakfast, but it's not totally because of the high protein content. Rather, astronauts eat this breakfast as a tradition before rocketing outside the atmosphere because of the astronaut Alan Shepard.
Alan Shepard was the first American to enter space; he claimed the title back in 1961 on the Freedom 7 spacecraft. Although Shepard didn't fully orbit the earth, he did set a record and leave a legacy -- and his space-travel day started with steak and eggs. Beatrice Finkelstein of the Aerospace Medical Laboratory chose the dish for Shepard, reasoning that the dish is high in protein but low in fiber, reducing the risk of the astronaut needing to use the bathroom during his 15-minute journey into space. Now, many years later, it's still tradition for astronauts to enjoy this classic breakfast prior to takeoff.
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Alan Shepard might have been the first American to reach outer space -- and the first one to eat steak and eggs before doing so -- but other well-known space travelers took a page from his book. In 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins made history once more when they traveled to the moon, and they also ate steak and eggs before the launch. They not only ate it as tribute to Shepard, but also because of its low dietary fiber and high protein. Fifty-four years later, Aldrin posted on X that he was celebrating the mission's anniversary with, you guessed it, a steak and eggs breakfast.
Steak and eggs' history as a breakfast staple in the United States dates back to World War II, when soldiers stationed in Australia began eating the dish regularly. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this became a meal that soldiers ate before deploying on a mission, like a beach landing. Of course, this hearty breakfast is far from the meals astronauts eat on moon missions. During preparation for the first NASA missions, the scientists weren't even sure that a human being could swallow in zero-gravity. After they learned that it was possible, early space travel saw plenty of freeze-dried foods along with powder for beverages, which astronauts could mix into water. These days, more ordinary foods can be consumed in space, too, including cookies, granola bars, and nuts, but major meals still have to undergo either a freeze-drying process or a thermostabilizing process (exposing food to high heat) in order to mitigate bacterial growth. No, the food isn't quite as good as steak and eggs, but it has certainly improved since Shepard took that first trip.