The national push to land on the moon 50 years ago helped launch the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Department of Food Science and Technology.
In a recent report, KETV (Channel 7) reporter Andrew Ozaki outlined a nearly forgotten slice of history that outlined how three Nebraska researchers developed a technique to irradiate bread that was used in NASA missions. The project was led by Ted Hartung, Burt Maxcy and Lloyd Bullerman. The project was one of the first for the department, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
The “Nebraska space bread” was used by NASA through the Apollo program — including the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 — and in Skylab missions. It was also a featured item in the joint United States-USSR mission to link Apollo and Soyuz space craft in 1969.
Click the video above to learn more about how Nebraska innovation helped feed NASA astronauts.
The story was also reported by Chris Dunker with the Lincoln Journal Star.
