This scene was captured just minutes before Orion reached a new record distance from Earth. On April 2, the crew broke the record set in 1970 by the Apollo 13 mission, venturing more than 400,000 km from our planet—the farthest in the history of human space travel.
A video of a floating jar of Nutella quickly went viral on social media, attracting particular attention among internet users. "Nutella just broke a world record by flying as far away from Earth as nobody else did before," wrote one X user. "Nutella just got the ultimate space advertisement, thanks to the Artemis 2 crew," posted another X user. Some internet users even accused NASA of staging the spread's brief appearance, calling it "product placement."
However, NASA promptly denied the rumor. Agency spokesperson Bethany Stevens told Futurism: "NASA does not select crew meals or food in collaboration with brands."
Besides the visible jar of Nutella in the footage, astronauts ate macaroni and cheese, beef brisket, broccoli au gratin, and scrambled eggs, among many other menu items. They also brought along a large quantity of hot sauce and coffee.
Artemis II astronauts have previously discussed the types of food they consume during their stay in space, emphasizing the practicality and adaptability of meals in zero gravity. During the recent flight, they even demonstrated performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) while the Orion spacecraft continued its journey toward the Moon.
Mission specialist Christina Koch showed various food pouches in a video, including a shrimp cocktail, while mission commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen bravely conducted a resuscitation demonstration despite limited space, answering questions from young Canadians during a video call with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
"Of course. Let’s see what we can pull out. This is Jeremy’s dinner, and in space, you really eat all your food out of some kind of pouch, plastic bags, or little metal pouches, because we have to rehydrate a lot of the food. This is actually a shrimp cocktail. And this one has already been rehydrated, so we added water to it, and the shrimp have soaked up the water again, and it’s actually quite tasty. This is an example of food that hasn’t been rehydrated yet. It’s completely dried out for the flight up here in space, and that’s green peas. So, we have to eat vegetables even in space, but don’t worry, they give us mac and cheese," explained astronaut Christina Koch.