To Boldly Grill Where No One Has Grilled Before

​Astronauts Grill Steak Aboard China’s Tiangong Station

One small rib for man, one giant rack for mankind.​

Move over, freeze-dried meals - astronauts aboard China’s Tiangong space station just fired up the first-ever barbecue in orbit. Yes, really. Thanks to a brand-new smokeless oven, space cuisine just got crispy, golden, and downright delicious.

For the first time in history, astronauts have actually cooked food in microgravity, not just reheated it. It’s the first oven of its kind in the world that can be used aboard a space station. The breakthrough comes from a specially designed hot-air oven that reaches 190°C - hot enough to trigger real chemical reactions, the ones that give food that mouthwatering, browned finish.

The new oven was delivered to Tiangong by the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft, and the first meals on the menu? Barbecued chicken wings and a juicy beef dish. According to China’s space agency, astronauts can also use it to bake cakes, roast peanuts, or grill meat - a major upgrade for those long months away from Earth.

Researchers behind the project made sure this little space kitchen is as safe as it is innovative. It has high-temperature catalysis and multi-layer filtration to achieve completely smoke-free baking. Every surface that astronauts might touch stays cool, so there’s no risk of burns.

Cooking time is a little slow, with the wings reportedly taking 28 minutes to come out as crispy as they did. But it's a huge leap forward for food technology in space, and could allow for a much more appetizing and varied diet.
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On the International Space Station, meals are still mostly precooked or freeze-dried - heat and eat, no flair. But on Tiangong, weekend barbecues and birthday cakes are now on the menu.

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