Snacks in space, overview:
- PorkRinds.com sent Southern Recipe Small Batch pork rinds 102,402 feet into the stratosphere, returning them safely with their crunch reportedly intact.
- The stunt follows KFC’s 2017 Zinger balloon flight and DoubleTree by Hilton’s landmark cookie-baking experiment aboard the International Space Station in 2019.
- Doritos went further in 2024 by reformulating its Cool Ranch Minis to prevent floating seasoning and crumbs before they were eaten in orbit by the Polaris Dawn crew.
PorkRinds.com has sent what it claims is the first fried pork snack into near-space, carrying a bag of Southern Recipe Small Batch pork rinds more than 102,000 feet above Earth – and bringing every last rind safely home.
Launched by high-altitude balloon from Richland College in Dallas, Texas, the ‘Pork Rinds in Space’ payload travelled 63 miles, soared beyond commercial air traffic and captured more than 120 images before returning to terra firma with its crunch reportedly intact.
The flight was the culmination of months of research, test launches and what began as an April Fools’ joke. Its mission was to answer one small question for snacks, but one giant question for rind-kind: can a pork rind survive a trip to the edge of space without going soft?
The final crunch-tier
PorkRinds.com says the answer is a crackling yes.
The project began with conversations involving professors, food scientists and former astronauts before the team strapped its snack to a weather balloon for a test flight. That preliminary mission reached 65,000 feet, giving PorkRinds.com the data – and presumably the pork-packing confidence – needed to attempt the final ascent.
The balloon lifted off from Dallas at 10am on 1 August and eventually peaked at 102,402 feet. A real-time tracker followed its progress as the payload sailed high enough for its cameras to capture the curvature of the Earth. More than 120 images were beamed back during the journey, placing a rather earthly bag of pork rinds against the darkness of near-space.
“Humanity has put man on the Moon. We’ve sent rovers to Mars. But nobody has sent a pork rind until now,” said Mark Singleton, VP of sales and marketing at Rudolph Foods, which operates the ecommerce and promotional platform.
“This wasn’t just a stunt for us. It was a statement: pork rinds are a snack built for any environment, any altitude, any moment life throws at you, including the edge of space.”
That’s a lofty way to describe a marketing campaign involving a bag of fried pig skin, but the stunt does tap into something snack brands understand well: unusual experiences can turn an everyday product into a social media event. A balloon, a camera and an audacious claim gave PorkRinds.com a spectacle that could travel considerably further online than the 63 miles clocked up by its payload.
And this particular flight didn’t end in a porcine tragedy. The payload was successfully recovered after its descent, with all pork rinds reportedly accounted for and their crunch still intact. The experiment might not rewrite food science, but as a marketing stunt, it certainly brought home the bacon.
The space race for snacks
PorkRinds.com isn’t the first snack business to reach for the stars. In 2017, KFC sent a Zinger chicken sandwich into the stratosphere aboard a high-altitude balloon. The publicity stunt was intended to keep the sandwich aloft for four days, but a technical problem brought the flight back down to Earth after around 17 hours.
DoubleTree by Hilton went several steps further in 2019 when its signature chocolate chip cookie became the first food successfully baked in outer space. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) used a specially designed zero-gravity oven to bake five frozen dough portions as part of an experiment exploring how fresh food could make long-duration space travel more comfortable.
The first cookie spent two hours in the oven but emerged underbaked. Subsequent tests gradually extended the cooking time, with the fifth remaining in the oven for 130 minutes before cooling outside it for 10 minutes. One of the cookies later returned to Earth and eventually landed – figuratively this time – in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
Doritos took the crunch into orbit in 2024. PepsiCo developed Zero Gravity Cool Ranch Doritos Minis for the Polaris Dawn mission, replacing the snack’s usual loose powdered seasoning with an oil-based coating designed to stop flavour dust floating around the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The tortilla chips were also made small enough to be eaten in a single bite, reducing the risk of crumbs escaping into the zero-gravity environment. Packed inside specially approved flight-safe tins, the space-ready Doritos were eaten by the four-person crew while orbiting Earth.
Footage of the astronauts tucking in became what Doritos described as its first advertisement filmed in space. It was an astute piece of product engineering wrapped inside a cosmic marketing campaign and proof that even in zero gravity, snack advertising still carries weight.
“The limitless possibilities of space inspired us to push the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Chris Bellinger, chief creative officer of PepsiCo Foods North America, at the time. “This mission is a testament to our commitment to delivering bold experiences and flavours, even in the most unexpected places.”
Southern Recipe’s pork rinds didn’t travel quite so far. Strictly speaking, the payload reached the upper atmosphere rather than outer space, which is commonly considered to begin at the 100km Kármán line. At 102,402 feet, or around 31km, it nevertheless flew higher than KFC’s Zinger and put the pork rind category firmly in the stratosphere.
No pigs flew but their crackling certainly did.
Mission accomplished: the final crunch-tier has been conquered.
