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Sorry, astronaut ice cream never went to space

The freeze-dried neopolitan treat was never actually consumed by astronauts in space, according to Vox's Phil Edwards.
CBC News ·
Astronaut Ice Cream is freeze-dried, and comes in flavours like Neapolitan, Chocolate-Chocolate Chip, Mint Chocolate Chip. The texture could be described as "chalky." (Wikipedia)
As It Happens6:47Journalist exposes astronaut ice cream as a lie
Do you remember Astronaut Ice Cream? The special treat in silver packaging, sold at space camps, science centres and museum gift shops? If you don't, journalist Phil Edwards described it to As It Happens host Carol Off, as that "freeze-dried traditional ice cream, that's distinguished by being really sugary and having a kind of chalky taste." 
Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham said his favourite space treat was actually the bacon bar. (Youtube)
It's distinguished by being really sugary, and having a kind of chalky taste.- Phil Edwards

"It was probably the most exciting thing about space travel to me." But, it turns out, Astronaut Ice Cream likely never went to space. 

Edwards believes the story traces back to a press release from the Apollo 7 mission, that listed vanilla ice cream as a dessert aboard the space ship. But Walt Cunningham, the sole surviving astronaut from that mission, said there was no ice cream at all (although he does remember pudding.) 

Edwards believes that the whole space thing is the reason most kids want Astronaut Ice Cream in the first place: "It makes you overlook the flaws and the definite failures in comparison to traditional ice cream." 

The other reason that makes Edwards believe Astronaut Ice Cream has never been to space? It's crumbly. "Crumbly food is terrible for space travel...It could actually endanger the mission." 

Crumbly food is terrible for space travel.- Phil Edwards

Edwards says what ultimately frustrates him is that he learned "the wrong lesson about space travel." 

But he hopes that in the future kids can try Cunningham's real favourite snack: "Bacon squares... dried up, recombinated bacon. It looked delicious to me, as well." 

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