For many, the day doesn’t truly begin until that first sip of coffee. But what happens when you’re orbiting 400 kilometres above Earth, where gravity refuses to play along? NASA astronaut Don Pettit found himself longing for the rich aroma of his morning brew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and decided to take matters into his own hands. Unlike on Earth, where a steaming cup of coffee can be leisurely sipped, astronauts rely on sealed pouches and straws to prevent liquids from floating away in microgravity. But for Pettit, that was simply not good enough. He wanted the full coffee experience — smell, taste and the comforting feel of a real sip.
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That’s when he designed the Capillary Cup, a specially engineered vessel that defies weightlessness, allowing astronauts to drink coffee just as they would at home, as per Rochester Institute of Technology. Showing his invention in a now-viral video on X (formerly Twitter), Pettit can be seen taking a sip and savouring the moment from his floating white cup. “Having a sip O’joe in the morning; nothing beats the zero-g cup for morning coffee,” he captioned the post.
Watch the video here:
Having a sip O’joe in the morning; nothing beats the zero-g cup for morning coffee. pic.twitter.com/koM2V4Lhsf
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) March 27, 2025
Coffee lovers understand that taste isn’t just about flavour, it’s an experience that engages all the senses, with smell playing a major role. Pettit echoed this sentiment, telling a user how traditional space coffee, consumed from a bag, failed to deliver the full sensory pleasure.
“The zero-g cup allows one to smell your coffee, something you can’t do when sipping through a straw from a bag; the smell is probably 70% of the coffee pleasure,” he wrote in another post.
The zero-g cup allows one to smell your coffee, something you can’t do when sipping through straw from a bag; smell is probably 70% of the coffee pleasure
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) March 27, 2025
Pettit playfully responded to a user who commented that people were usually advised not to play with their food. Pettit said the rule didn’t apply in space.
“In space, you can play with your food and call it science,” was Pettit’s humorous reply
In space, you can play with your food and call it science
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) March 27, 2025
And who could argue? His innovation is not only making space coffee more enjoyable but also contributing to a better understanding of fluid dynamics in microgravity. While Pettit’s invention could revolutionise the way astronauts drink coffee, there’s been a recent setback. On March 22, he revealed that the ISS’s espresso machine had been sent back to Earth, leaving astronauts with only instant coffee to get by.
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