Chinese astronauts host the first-ever “space BBQ” aboard Tiangong Station
- MM24 News Desk
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station have made culinary history, enjoying the world's first orbital barbecue featuring freshly baked chicken wings and black pepper steak. This milestone meal, prepared using a specialized hot air oven brought by the Shenzhou-21 crew, occurred during a unique six-astronaut handover ceremony just before the scheduled return of the previous crew was delayed due to a suspected space debris strike.
The atmosphere aboard China's orbiting outpost was celebratory in the early hours of Tuesday as six astronauts gathered for an unprecedented feast. The incoming Shenzhou-21 mission had brought a revolutionary appliance to the space kitchen: a hot air oven capable of cooking fresh food in microgravity. The crew used it to prepare marinated chicken wings, baking them for 28 minutes before moving on to steak, creating the first-ever barbecue in space.
This culinary breakthrough is part of a broader Chinese effort to significantly enhance the quality of life for astronauts during long-duration missions. According to Xinhua, which reported the event, researchers have been working systematically to improve the variety, texture, flavor, color, and nutrition of space food.
The historic meal was met with joyful reactions from the crew, particularly from 32-year-old flight engineer Wu Fei, who became the youngest Chinese astronaut in space and was shown in a video removing the roasted wings from the oven. "It smells, looks and tastes amazing," Wu declared.
The technology behind this achievement is as impressive as the meal itself. Liu Weibo, a research fellow with the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre, explained the innovation behind the world's first space oven of its kind. "The rangehood is installed inside the oven to purify the oxide of carbon produced during cooking within the machine," Liu stated in an interview with People's Daily, ensuring no cooking fumes or odors would be released into the station's closed environment. The oven is designed to operate for an impressive 500 cycles, meeting the station's strict emission standards.
"Our motivation is Chinese people's love for freshly made meals," Liu Weibo told Xinhua. "Imagine if astronauts, after living in a relatively closed environment for months, can enjoy the aroma of freshly baked chicken wings and steak – or crispy peanuts and bread they prepared themselves – wouldn't that bring a sense of happiness?"
The barbecue occurred during a significant operational moment—the formal handover between the Shenzhou-20 and Shenzhou-21 crews. The six astronauts participated in a ceremony transferring the key to the space station to the new crew, with the Shenzhou-20 mission originally scheduled to depart the following day. However, on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency announced the return flight was postponed due to a suspected strike from small space debris on the spacecraft, extending the previous crew's stay unexpectedly.
The culinary options for Chinese astronauts have expanded dramatically. The Shenzhou-21 astronauts now have access to a diverse menu of 190 types of food, which they can supplement with fresh crops grown aboard the station. Since the Shenzhou-16 mission, Chinese astronauts have cultivated seven types of plants including lettuce, cherry tomatoes and sweet potatoes, yielding a total of 4.5kg (10lbs) of fresh produce using advanced recycling and irrigation technologies designed for microgravity.
While this represents China's first oven-baked meal in space, it's not humanity's first experimentation with space baking. In late 2019, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) baked chocolate chip cookies in a special zero-gravity oven, though they discovered space baking required significantly longer cooking times—up to two hours compared to twenty minutes on Earth. The Chinese achievement with savory items like meat marks a new frontier in space cuisine, bringing the fantasy of grilling in space one step closer to reality.
Comments