Space might be the final frontier but when it comes to food‚ life in microgravity still leaves a lot to be desired – and it seems that it has been like that from the very beginning. The first meal in space was eaten by Yuri Gagarin on humanity's first-ever trip in orbit. What did he eat&;#63; Well‚ it was certainly a choice.In 1961‚ cosmonaut Gagarin became the first human in space‚ completing a single orbit of Earth in 108 minutes. Gagarin’s Vostok 1 space capsule was stacked with 13 days’ worth of provisions just in case the retrorocket failed and he had to wait for the natural orbital decay to come back down to Earth but this was a good chance to test eating in space. Despite tests carried out on the  &;quot;Vomit Comet&;quot; back on Earth‚ scientists didn't know for sure if basic functions like chewing and swallowing could be carried out in microgravity. One vital consideration was “no crumbs” so the solution was food items that could be made into a paste and placed in a metal toothpaste-style tube.Despite being in orbit for less than two hours‚ Gagarin actually had two courses. The main course was beef and liver puree. Gagarin ate two tubes of it – maybe it was more appetizing than it sounds – and then he had a tube of chocolate sauce for dessert.Because scientists didn’t know at the time the effect of microgravity on humans‚ they didn’t want to risk Gagarin losing consciousness so the capsule was controlled from the ground with a code to switch to manual control in case of emergency. This included if digestion went wrong‚ but with the first meal in orbit‚ Gagarin proved it was OK to eat in space.What became clear‚ as more and more astronauts went into space and stayed there for longer‚ is that our sense of taste can change once in microgravity. Bodily fluids shift towards your head and studies have shown that this may lead to an attenuation of the olfactory components in the flavor of food‚ a bit like eating with a cold.Since the days of Gagarin‚ there have been changes and improvements to what astronauts and cosmonauts eat and drink in orbit. Gone are the days of &;quot;freeze-dried astronaut ice cream&;quot;. Not only can astronauts have pizza delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) but they can bake cookies on the ISS‚ too. You can even grab an espresso thanks to a bespoke cup to drink it in microgravity.Scientists have even bravely tested if it's possible to fry food in microgravity. Tests were carefully conducted using a special fryer on a parabolic plane simulating weightlessness and showed that it is perfectly possible to deep fry things in microgravity – with the right kit (do not try this at home).However‚ the &;quot;no crumbs&;quot; rule is still proving a hard challenge to beat and one thing that has not been solved yet is bread: wraps‚ pittas‚ rotis‚ and bread that doesn’t have crumbs are A-OK in space but if you're holding out for a space sandwich‚ we've still got a way to go.