Though I’ve read several accounts of the first lunar landing, I’m still astonished by how casually the multiple “firsts” are mentioned. It was interesting to read about how “after the astronauts ate their first meal and then…”

If an extraterrestrial body, even if it isn’t a planet, is visited for the first time, the first meal consumed there should be given more than a footnote. I think most people would be moderately interested in knowing what Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate on the moon. Many people are intrigued by the idea of eating in space, and the very first meal consumed in orbit could surprise you.

The inaccuracies concerning the first supper on the moon can be found in the very few sources that bother to discuss the topic at all. Sandwiches and beef stew are only two of the foods I’ve seen mentioned. Both were missing from the original lunar feast.

Contents

Inaugural Lunar Feast

And what did the First Humans to Set Foot on the Moon Eat?

In what ways do we have a common passion? Currently, what do we all desire?

Bacon is a must-have. To be more precise, bacon cubes.

The menu for the entire evening included:

  • four pieces of bacon
  • It’s a lot of sugar in three cookies.
  • peaches
  • Mixed drink with pineapple and grapefruit
  • coffee

It’s unclear whether or not this dinner was predetermined. For as far as anyone could remember—at least as far back as the Gemini missions—NASA space flights had included bacon. To me, though, a breakfast of bacon and coffee is just as good as any other before your first spacewalk.

Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, at an unspecified time between 4:17 p.m. (Florida time) and 10:56 p.m., though I can’t be certain of the exact time the two were eating. They checked for damage, ate, and put on their spacesuits after the lunar module landed and the historic message “Houston, the Eagle has landed” was relayed to mission control.

This is when the plot thickens, so to speak.

No, the First Meal on the Moon Wasn’t the First Food Ever Prepared

Buzz Aldrin claims that the published timeline allowed for significant downtime and preparation following the initial landing. A visit to the Grand Canyon has nothing on a moon landing. You can’t just drive up, get out, and start clicking shots. The mission gave the astronauts more time than they needed to prepare for the first moonwalk. After that, Aldrin ate the first food ever consumed on the moon.

Buzz Aldrin had the first lunar meal, a bacon breakfast, before the two astronauts arrived. He actually took communion, when he ate a wafer symbolising the “body of Christ.” Many people have commented on Aldrin’s choice to do something special to commemorate the event. Yet, does it deserve to be remembered as the moon’s first meal? My guess is no. It was the first food, but it wasn’t meant to sustain life, and it was never even close to being a meal. Snopes has more on this if you’re interested.