A surprising amount of booze has flown into space

NASA has a strict no alcohol policy for its astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). 

But it wasn't always that way.

From Russian cognac to American beer, a surprising amount of alcohol has traveled into microgravity.

Keep scrolling for a brief history of alcohol in space, and why it's still being launched to the ISS even though no astronauts are drinking it. 

The presence of alcohol in space dates all the way back to the 80s and the Soviet Union space station called Mir. At that time, cognac was actually doctor-recommended for Russian cosmonauts.

Alexander Lazutkin, a cosmonaut who spent time aboard Russia's Mir space station, opened up to reporters about drinking in space:

"During prolonged space missions, especially at the beginning of the Space Age, we had alcoholic drinks in the cosmonauts' rations," the Interfax news agency quoted him saying in 2010. "This was cognac, which the doctors recommended for use. We used it to stimulate our immune system and on the whole to keep our organisms in tone."

It's unclear whether or not Russian cosmonauts drink on the ISS now.

NASA, on the other hand, is much more strict. It maintains that no astronauts drink in space. But that wasn't always the case.

There was that time astronaut Buzz Aldrin took communion on the moon.

According to The Guardian, Aldrin gave this account of taking communion on the moon:

"I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements."

NASA never broadcast the ceremony.