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See what astronaut ice cream really looks like on the ISS

Hint: It's not freeze-dried.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
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Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopev, NASA's Serena Auñón-Chancellor and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev show off their ice cream miniatures.

Oleg Artemyev/Roscosmos

"Astronaut ice cream" may be the most infamous of all space foods. The freeze-dried treat is sold in stores on Earth, but according to NASA astronauts and the National Air and Space Museum, likely never actually made it into space

So what does ice cream really look like on the International Space Station? It looks like what you can buy at the grocery store. 

Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev posted photos to Twitter on Thursday showing off a selection of frozen desserts delivered by the recent SpaceX Dragon resupply mission.

"#Dragon brought some ice cream and tangerines to the #ISS," Artemyev wrote. He thanked NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor for the edible gifts.

The photos show the crew holding chocolate-covered Dove and Snickers ice cream bars still in their wrappers. They are exactly like you'll find in boxes in the frozen aisle in US stores. There's no silver packaging, and no crunchy freeze-dried Neapolitan bars in sight.

While the myth of space ice cream has been busted for years, it's still heartening to see the ISS astronauts get to enjoy frozen desserts just like those of us stuck down here on Earth.

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