Company history
Yes, and it is documented in NASA’s own archive. Shaklee scientists are named co-authors on NASA Technical Memoranda about rehydration research carried out at Ames Research Center in the 1990s. Here are the papers, and here is what they do and do not say.
There is a lot of loose talk online about Shaklee and NASA. Some of it is true, some of it is exaggerated, and at least one widely repeated version appears to confuse Shaklee with a different company entirely. NASA published a Spinoff article about an electrolyte drink developed from Ames research, but that product was licensed and commercialised by Wellness Brands Inc. of Boulder, Colorado. Shaklee is not named in it.
So rather than repeat the folklore, here is the part that is checkable. Every paper below is in NASA’s Technical Reports Server, and I have read each one to confirm Shaklee is actually named in it before listing it.
NASA Technical Memorandum 103942
Shaklee author: J. H. Whittam, Shaklee U.S., Inc., San Francisco, California
The paper records that all drink formulations except one were prepared by Shaklee chemists in their laboratory.
Read it on NASA’s archive →NASA Technical Memorandum 4650 (December 1994)
Shaklee author: L. G. Wong, Health Sciences Division, Shaklee U.S., Inc.
Lists Shaklee’s Performance drink as a test fluid, and states the study was supported by Shaklee Grant JSRA-7 alongside NASA Grant 199-18-12-07.
Read it on NASA’s archive →NASA Technical Memorandum 4657
Shaklee author: L. G. Wong, Shaklee U.S., Inc., San Francisco, California
Describes Performance as "a commercial product of Shaklee U.S., Inc." and credits Shaklee Grant JSRA-7 with NASA Grants 199-18-12-07 and NAG8-227.
Read it on NASA’s archive →AIAA Life Sciences and Space Medicine Conference, Houston, April 1995
Shaklee author: James H. Whittam, Ph.D., and Christopher D. Jensen, M.S., Shaklee U.S., Inc.
Indexed by NASA; Shaklee scientists appear among the named authors.
Read it on NASA’s archive →NASA abstract, August 1996
Shaklee author: J. H. Whittam, Shaklee, Inc.
Shaklee appears in the author affiliations on NASA’s own catalogue record.
Read it on NASA’s archive →A 1966 NASA-indexed physics paper on gallium arsenide lists a co-author named K. L. Shaklee. That is a different person, a semiconductor physicist, with no connection to Shaklee Corporation. It would pad this page nicely and it would be wrong, so it is not here.
Product descriptions are general and not medical advice. Talk to your healthcare provider before starting any new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medication.
Not in the way that phrase is usually meant. What is documented, in NASA’s own Technical Reports Server, is that Shaklee scientists co-authored NASA Ames Research Center studies on rehydration in the early-to-mid 1990s, and that Shaklee’s Performance drink was used as a test fluid in that research. That is a research collaboration, not a purchase and not an endorsement.
No. NASA does not endorse commercial products, and nothing on this page should be read as an endorsement. Shaklee scientists appear as named co-authors on NASA Technical Memoranda, which is a matter of public record, and that is the whole of the claim.
According to the papers themselves: Shaklee chemists prepared the drink formulations used in testing, Shaklee’s Health Sciences Division formulated and packaged the test drinks, Shaklee’s commercial Performance drink was one of the fluids studied, and Shaklee co-funded the work through Shaklee Grant JSRA-7 alongside NASA grants.
Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. The lead author across most of these papers is J. E. Greenleaf, a NASA Ames physiologist who published extensively on fluid balance and exercise.
I have not found a primary source that establishes that, so I am not going to claim it. Versions of that story circulate widely, but the documents I can actually verify are the research papers listed on this page. If you see me claim something on this site, I want to be able to show you where it came from.
No. These papers date from roughly 1991 to 1996. They are a real part of Shaklee’s history and they are permanently archived by NASA, but they are not a statement about any product sold today.
Shaklee has been operating since 1956 and has changed hands more than once, which is why people ask whether it still exists.
Shaklee’s history and ownershipHow the products are tested