(CNN) - Most people's experience with space food is limited to the vacuum packed slabs of freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream sold in science gift shops.
The history of space food has been a long and appetizing road.
In the beginningWith the challenge of developing food to eat in microgravity, scientists were faced with basic questions such as could food be digested easily?
For all the advances in space food achieved during the Apollo food program, the food scientists agreed that the majority of Apollo astronauts returned to Earth having lost weight for not consuming sufficient nutrients.
Around six months before launch, astronauts spend a number of days tasting and rating a menu of 200 food items at the Johnson Space Center Food Lab.