Uber Eats becomes first company to deliver food to International Space Station

In an out-of-this-world achievement, Uber Eats became the first food delivery service on Earth to send eatables to the International Space Station (ISS). In an official release by the firm, it informed that the delivery was made on December 11 in partnership with Japanese billionaire and space tourist Yusaku Maezawa, who left for the ISS on December 8 for a 12-day stay. Uber Eats announced the development via Twitter and congratulated Maezawa on his first space trip.

A delivery that took eight hours

Since the space station is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 400 kilometres, the delivery of food to Maezawa took eight hours and 34 minutes. The delivery to the astronauts on the space station included ready-to-eat canned Japanese dishes which was a ''welcome break from standard space food'', according to Uber Eats. The astronauts reportedly feasted on a number of dishes including boiled mackerel in miso, beef bowl cooked in sweet sauce, simmered chicken with bamboo shoots, and braised pork. Thanking the firm for the delivery, Maezawa said as per an official release-

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to handle Uber Eats' first food delivery to space. Uber Eats' initiative and sense of adventure is inspiring. I will never stop challenging myself, and I hope that everyone continues to do the same. Let's make the world a better place. 

Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi also expressed his elation over the successful delivery which he called a "giant one". Adding to his statement, he said, "Our goal is to help people go anywhere and get anything, so we're proud to serve the astronauts at the International Space Station. Yusaku Maezawa gets a thumbs up on this delivery, even though it took a bit longer than the usual 30 minutes to arrive". 

Interestingly, Uber Eats has announced that it is offering $10 off $20+ orders to the first 24,800 people with promo code 'SPACEFOOD' which will be valid from December 13 to 19th. According to the company, this special offer is to celebrate the distance between the Earth and the space station. 

Maezawa's space trip

Founder of Japan’s largest clothing retail company Zozotown, Yusaku Maezawa launched to the space station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and his assistant and film producer Yozo Hirano. Currently on the fifth day of his space tour, Maezawa is documenting his stay aboard the space station and uploading it on his official YouTube channel.