Freeze-dried Ice Cream - Space Use

Space Use

Apollo 7 in 1968 was the first and only NASA mission on which freeze-dried ice cream flew in space. It was developed by U.S. Army Natick Laboratories, consisting of "coconut fat, milk solids, and sugar. The ice cream was homogenized, frozen, then freeze-dried, ground and compressed into cubes under high pressure. The cubes were then coated with an edible gelatin coating to prevent crumbs". This was the ice cream flown on Apollo 7, which can differ from modern space ice cream. It was found to be impractical for space flight because of the tendency to crumble and create crumbs which can be dangerous to humans and equipment in a microgravity environment. Despite the modern images of space walking astronauts in shuttle era space suits, freeze dried ice cream was not included on any subsequent Apollo, Skylab, shuttle or International Space Station missions. According to one NASA food scientist, although freeze-dried ice cream was developed on request, "it wasn't that popular."