No childhood would be complete without a taste of freeze-dried ice cream bought at the completion of a yearly field trip to your local science museum. As you stare, wide eyed at the majesty before you, a few questions might have popped into your head. Such as, "How did they do it?," and "Why haven’t Ben and Jerry gotten in on the action?" If only this gallery of the past 50 years of NASA space food had been available, all of your most crucial elementary school questions would have been answered.

The original line-up consisted of foods such as crackers and nuts that were vacuum-packed and shipped off to space. As pallets became more sophisticated (pinky out), food followed suit and astronauts were given more choices of protein, in addition to the traditional freeze-dried buffet. I imagine fondue never made it out, though an orbiting shuttle full of melted cheese does sound delectable.

From food brought aboard the Apollo missions, whose containers had more resemblance to I.V. bags than anything you’d desire to place in your mouth, to having the ability to prepare more complex meals, the  SFSL (Space Food Systems Laboratory) has made many advancements in the name of space science. We guess you could say that’s “One small nibble for man, one giant munch for foodie kind.”

H/T Laughing Squid