The Vintage 1960s NASA Space Snack That Became A Star In American Households

Just like we might get a craving for an afternoon snack when sitting at a desk and we smell someone's freshly popped bag of microwave popcorn, so too do astronauts get hungry doing their job. Space snacking is more difficult, so in the 1960s, NASA turned to Pillsbury to play a key role in the creation of space food. The General Mills property created what would become known as the first energy bar. They were aptly dubbed "Space Food Sticks" and marketed as a "perfectly balanced energy snack" for the men venturing to go where no man had gone before: outer space.

However, to make it into the astronaut's diet, Space Food Sticks had to meet some specific criteria outlined by the U.S. government. For starters, NASA wanted them to be able to eat the snack food while wearing their airtight helmet. Because they had to fit through a small hole, they were crafted into rods. Pillsbury's Howard Bauman and his team get the hat tip for this invention, along with NASA and the U.S. Air Force. It was definitely a collaborative effort.

Space Food Sticks were designed to provide the same nutrition as a small meal. A box contained 14 sticks, and each stick contained 44 calories. They were described as being like a Tootsie Roll, and they came in chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter flavors. These babies made the journey aboard the Eagle spacecraft to the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969. When they were actually eaten by the spacemen is unknown.

Of course, when you make something great, you want the world to know. Pillsbury is said to have taken a page out of Tang's marketing playbook. (John Glenn drank this powdery drink mix that can upgrade your wings during his orbit, and its connection to space made it a favorite drink with the public.) Pillsbury decided to ride the popularity of being associated with the space program and marketed Space Food Sticks to the general public.

The company changed both the stick size and the packaging to appeal to the public's interest. The wrappers were shiny, and the sticks were a shortened version of what astronauts carried and consumed on board. Space Food Sticks quickly became a household favorite. Even today, there are blogs and forums waxing nostalgic. One person shared on Reddit, "Loved them. Of course they were nothing but candy, but they were great."  And another noted, "These things were a favorite of me and my brothers. Our grandmother would always have these for us. That grainy texture and vitamin taste were somehow delicious to us."

The lore of this energy snack continued, and in 1973, it was featured as a food during the Skylab mission. But all good things come to an end, and sadly, these old-school snacks people loved to eat in the 1970s fell out of favor and were discontinued in the '80s. While they made a cameo in "The Simpsons" and the movie "Super 8," don't expect to find Space Food Sticks are no longer available.