THE RACE FOR SPACE BRANDING

When I was young, we drank Tang because the it was the beverage choice of astronauts. Now I hear the Trump campaign plans to sell Space Force merchandise and is floating logos, but I keep thinking about Tang Beverage and Space Sticks.

The Trump campaign announced Thursday they’ll be selling Space Force merchandise, hours after Vice President Mike Pence painted a grounded picture of the prospective military branch’s future.

In an email to supporters, Brad Parscale, the campaign manager for Trump’s 2020 bid, said the final design will be open to a vote. While a logo will be on official campaign gear, it’s unlikely that any of them will ultimately be the final design for the next branch, since that decision is managed by the U.S. Army’s Institute of Heraldry.

The sale of merchandise with the final logo will also likely be barred if the Space Force is formally established, since the Defense Department has strict regulations on the use of its military seals. That is, they aren’t allowed to be used in political campaigns.

In other words, any logo bought will be for an “imaginary space force,” not a real space force, much like a vote for an imaginary president, versus a real president.

Like Space Sticks and Tang, two processed foods developed for the astronauts, any relationship with nutrition is fanciful at best. These two items were developed for short term stays, not long term use. They were packed with sugars and fats, or dense nutritional choices in small servings, to take up small spaces in crowded places such as space capsules.

The breakfast drink of my childhood was Tang, since the astronauts drank it. It had the imprimatur of science all over it, just like white on rice. However, just one serving of Tang (about 2 tablespoons) contains 90 calories and 24 grams of carbohydrates from sugar. It had no fat, and no protein. Vitamin enriched Tang gives 100% of your recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of vitamin C. It’s also enriched with vitamin A, vitamin B2 or riboflavin, B3 or niacin and B6. Tang also contains calcium for stronger bones and teeth.

Ironically, Tang only contains a measly 2% of real orange juice solids. Most of Tang’s flavor comes from a cocktail of food flavorings, sugars, and artificial flavors. Quite simply, Tang is not orange juice. But it does provide all the health benefits of orange juice. It’s also extremely good for cleaning off the rust stains inside your dishwasher or washing machines, if you have iron rich water. Just throw the contents of a small container in the bottom, run a cycle with nothing inside, and you have bright and pretty again. (Now think of your insides!)

Orange juice has pulp/fiber, and doesn’t have Maltodextrin, Sucralose, Acesulfame Potassium, and Neotame. Plus it doesn’t have as many calories as Tang. Why didn’t the astronauts carry OJ into space? Tang was a powder and a lighter load to liftoff. Math wins over nutrition all day long.

Space Sticks were products of The Pillsbury Company, which had been lending its support to NASA. It saw an opportunity to catch a little “moon fever” for their company.

A battery of Pillsbury food scientists, led by Dr. Howard Bauman, whipped up an energy stick that was actually edible. The long chewy stick could slide into an airtight port located in an astronaut’s helmet to provide essential nutrition in case of an emergency. Pillsbury released a commercial spin-off of their cosmic creation, imaginatively dubbing the product Space Food Sticks.

Described as a “non-frozen balanced energy snack in rod form containing nutritionally balanced amounts of carbohydrate, fat and protein,” the original energy bars came in several flavors including caramel, chocolate, malt, mint, orange and the ever-popular peanut butter. Aficionados will recall that the Space Food Sticks were wrapped in special foil to give them an added space-age appearance.

While Tang made it to our family table, somehow Tootsie Rolls prevailed over Space Sticks. Sometime in the 1970’s, the product’s profile was further reduced when Pillsbury dropped the Space and distributed them as Food Sticks. The word energy bar hadn’t been invented yet. Slowly but inevitably the fabled Sticks gradually disappeared from supermarket shelves. Then in the 2000’s, they made a comeback when a true believer founded “Space Food Sticks Preservation Society” at Spacefoodsticks.com.

Perhaps we all need to be reminded of a kinder and gentler time when all things seemed possible, and especially of a time when we “asked not what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country.” We want to think of a time when we could all join together in a common, peaceful purpose and head for the moon, the planets, the stars, and beyond. Perhaps we can still be that people.

If you look up to the night sky from August 10 to 16,you just might catch the magnificent Perseid meteor showers, with the morning of August 11 to 13 at the peak. A country location, away from city lights, around midnight is the best time to see them. If these remnants from the comet’s tail burn up in our atmosphere, they’re called meteors. If they hit the ground, they’re meteorites. Comet Swift-Tuttle has been visiting earth as far back as 188 CE, and perhaps may be the same one which visited on 69 BCE. It won’t return again until 2126 CE. I sure won’t be around for the comet’s next visit, but the Perseid meteor shower happens every year when the earth’s orbit intersects the fragments left behind in the comet’s orbit.

Take a healthy snack and maybe a caffeinated beverage for this late night viewing party. As I recall, the last time I stayed up late for a meteor shower, no one else wanted to see the sky light up with me. I thought, “Where is their sense of awe and mystery?” They were kind enough to wake me with coffee in the morning, however.

Eat well, and live with joy! Love, Cornie