How Coca-Cola Ended Up Being The First Soda In Space

Founded in 1886, Coke has become an undisputed icon in the soda industry. According to an informative booklet from the Coca-Cola Company, the Atlanta-based beverage is consumed 1.7 billion times per day globally, and enough has been produced to give 1,104 8-ounce contour bottles to everyone alive today. With a value of $33.2 billion, Coca-Cola is the bestselling soft drink in the world, per Beverage Daily. In second place is Pepsi at $18.4 billion.

So how exactly did Coca-Cola do it? According to Business Insider, its success can be contributed to its highly strategic branding. The company, which has its original recipe sealed in a vault in Atlanta, has made very few changes since its founding. It maintained the same logo and font, it held a fixed price for 70 years, and it adopted new ways of advertising that gave it a voice among corporations. With over 135 years of history, there's a lot you probably don't know about the beverage. For example, did you know it was the first soft drink in outer space?

Researchers at Coca-Cola developed a "space can" in 1984 — a cylindrical can complete with a drinking spout for astronauts to enjoy in outer space, per National Air and Space Museum. Its design was intended to maintain the beverage's signature fizz in anti-gravity situations. Coke and Pepsi battled to create a product that could be consumed by astronauts. A year later, Coca-Cola was officially consumed on a mission in the Challenger space shuttle, according to the Coca-Cola Company.

In 2022, Coke launched a new flavor that tastes like the galaxy called "Starlight," according to Space. "Coca-Cola Starlight combines great Coca-Cola taste with a dash of the unexpected, including a reddish hue," a press release stated. "Its taste includes additional notes reminiscent of stargazing around a campfire, as well as a cooling sensation that evokes the feeling of a cold journey to space." This new flavor combination makes sense, as the company takes another victory lap for being the first consumed soda in outer space.

Luckily for consumers young and old, traditional Coca-Cola is here to stay, and new, exciting, and unusual flavors will continue rolling out on the new Coca-Cola Creations platform for the adventurous types (via Business Wire).