How Death Wish Coffee Went to Space

Death Wish Coffee Fuels the International Space Station

Ignition sequence start: 3 ... 2 ...1 ... liftoff! On June 28, 2018, Death Wish Coffee was sent into space to fuel the astronauts on the International Space Station. Packed in the Dragon capsule, along with other supplies and science experiments, our coffee made its journey to the ISS on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 29 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to fuel NASA astronauts.

But how did this all come to be? Back in 2017, the Incredible Jeff Ayers made a wish list of who he would want to talk to on the Fueled By Death Cast podcast. At the top of his list was (obviously) an astronaut. Death Wish Coffee has always been fascinated by space and space exploration, so to be able to talk with someone who has walked among the stars seemed like a far-fetched idea at the time.

Jeff went on his own extraterrestrial mission to find an astronaut willing to come on the podcast. After searching far and wide, he discovered Nicole Stott, a retired NASA astronaut who happened to be the first person to paint in space—and also a huge coffee lover. Jeff downed a cup of ambition and shot her an email to be a guest on the podcast, which only had ten episodes at the time.

Nicole Stott shared her stories about flying on the Space Shuttle, living and working on the Space Station and what it was like to perform a spacewalk.  Nicole told us just how tired you get after something like a spacewalk and that she would crave good coffee. We jokingly said how we should get Death Wish Coffee into space, and Nicole thought that was a good idea.

One thing led to the next, and now Death Wish Coffee is a staple on NASA's food menu (a big thanks to Nicole Stott and the wonderful people at NASA Food Labs). We created an instant blend of freeze-dried coffee, packaged by NASA in astronaut drink pouches. It’s designed to caffeinate the crew aboard the International Space Station, without sacrificing the coffee’s texture, flavor and strength.

“We couldn’t think of a better way to showcase the smoothness and strength of our coffee than by providing the crew aboard the International Space Station with an easy-to-make blend that will keep them on their feet, so to speak,” noted Mike Brown, founder of Death Wish Coffee.

This story is so much more than just Death Wish Coffee hitching a ride on a SpaceX rocket to the ISS. This is about the idea Mike Brown had back in 2012—to create a bold, smooth brew that tasted great and people loved and to build the best coffee company in the world. He started that dream in the bowels of his coffee shop, and now it is blasting off into outer space—from the basement to the cosmos.

[Featured Image Credit: NASA via Unsplash]