Cooking With Fire

This past month we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. But you can’t get to the moon without fuel, and no, I’m not talking about rocket fuel. Astronauts, no matter how superhuman they may seem, still have to eat just like you and me. And what they ate for breakfast on that July day in 1969 mimicked a breakfast consumed eight years prior before the first manned space mission ever taken on by NASA. On May 5th, 1961, Alan Shepard was launched into space aboard Freedom 7 as part of Project Mercury. He was the first human in space for the United States, and although his flight duration was only 15 minutes and 22 seconds, his voyage was a stepping stone for manned space exploration. In the early hours of that same morning Shepard was awakened by flight surgeon Bill Douglas, and after getting ready took in a breakfast of filet mignon, eggs, orange juice, and tea. This high-protein breakfast was designed in part to give Shepard the energy needed to complete his