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First Ascent — a handcrafted instant coffee company based in Crested Butte — is living up to its slogan of serving "coffee to fuel people off the grid."

What's happening: Nearly 260 eight-ounce servings of the award-winning quick brew are set to head to space Wednesday — roughly 260 miles off the grid — on NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station.

Flashback: First Ascent, founded in 2018, gained popularity in the backpacking world after Outside Magazine named its Ethiopian instant coffee one of the best in the business in May 2019.

How it works: Much differently than sipping coffee on Earth because of a lack of gravity.

What they're saying: "I like the idea that there's an astronaut up there drinking our coffee who's super psyched before they start a day of doing whatever astronauts do on a space station," First Ascent founder and co-owner Mark Drucker told 5280.

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