Invented by General Foods in 1957, what powdered fruit-flavored breakfast drink was included in the Mercury and Gemini space flights, forever linking it with the space program?
Tang (drink) Tang (drink) Tang is a fruit-flavored drink that was formulated by General Foods Corporation food scientist William A. Mitchell in 1957, and first marketed in powdered form in 1959. The Tang brand is currently owned by Mondelēz International, a 2012 North American company split off of Kraft Foods Inc. Sales of Tang were poor until NASA used it on John Glenn's Mercury flight in February 1962, and on subsequent Gemini missions. Since then it has been closely associated with the U.S. manned spaceflight program, and created the misconception that Tang was invented for the space program. Tang was used by
Project Gemini The Gemini program was managed by the Manned Spacecraft Center, located in Houston, Texas, under direction of the Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Dr. George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator of NASA for Manned Space Flight, served as acting director of the Gemini program. William C. Schneider, Deputy Director of Manned Space Flight for Mission Operations, served as mission director on all Gemini flights beginning with Gemini 6A. Guenter Wendt was a McDonnell engineer who supervised launch preparations for both the Mercury and Gemini programs and would go on to do the same when the Apollo program