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Author
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Topic: Items astronauts have snuck into space
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ASCAN1984
Member Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 07-28-2009 03:59 PM
   
I understand that astronauts routinely take unauthorised items into space with them, e.g. in their suit pockets. I know two high profile items to be snuck aboard flights without NASA's knowledge. One was the corned beef sandwich of Gemini 3 mand the other was Pete Conrad's and Alan Bean's camera timer from Apollo 12. Are there any other interesting things taken aboard flights without permission? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-28-2009 04:01 PM
I'll let others list off items, but with regards to spaceflight today, it is seldom if not unheard of for astronauts aboard the space shuttle to sneak anything on-board. And while the Russians have been more lax in the past, Roscosmos has cracked down over the past few years on policing the items packed into spacesuit pockets. |
Greggy_D
Member Posts: 977
From: Michigan
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 07-28-2009 04:11 PM
Joe Allen took a remote camera shutter trigger aboard STS-5. |
sts205cdr
Member Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted 07-28-2009 04:18 PM
Didn't John Young sneak a pair of pliers aboard on Gemini 10? |
xlsteve
Member Posts: 391
From: Holbrook MA, USA
Registered: Jul 2008
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posted 07-28-2009 04:41 PM
I'm not sure if he snuck it on, but I think the pliers came up at auction no too long ago. |
sts205cdr
Member Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted 07-28-2009 08:58 PM
I knew I had read somewhere about Young smuggling a pair of pliers in his GT-10 suit. It's on Page 92 of Guenter Wendt's The Unbroken Chain. |
Rizz
Member Posts: 1208
From: Upcountry, Maui, Hawaii
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 07-29-2009 04:14 PM
Wally brought a Harmonica, and played Jingle Bells in orbit. |
Go4Launch
Member Posts: 542
From: Seminole, Fla.
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 07-29-2009 07:01 PM
...and the Apollo 8 crew brought the bells themselves. |
sts205cdr
Member Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted 07-29-2009 07:18 PM
A couple more:Apollo 14: Ed Mitchell carried 4 random number cards for his ESP experiment. Apollo 15: The Sieger covers. |
MrSpace86
Member Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 07-30-2009 02:26 PM
Gemini 3: Grissom's sandwich |
Rick Mulheirn
Member Posts: 4167
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 07-30-2009 04:14 PM
A packet of cigarettes on one of the Mercury flights; which one I do not recall. |
AstronautBrian
Member Posts: 287
From: Louisiana
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 07-30-2009 06:08 PM
What about Gus Grissom's roll of Mercury dimes? |
4allmankind
Member Posts: 1043
From: Dallas
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 07-30-2009 06:42 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Rick Mulheirn:
A packet of cigarettes on one of the Mercury flights; which one I do not recall.
That was Wally Schirra's flight. Those cigarettes are so terrific. |
Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 08-04-2009 04:23 AM
I believe French cosmonaut (CNES) Patrick Baudry was able to take a bottle of wine onboard the space shuttle in June 1985. Upon return he had a bottle from a "cave" (French for wine cellar) in space  |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 08-04-2009 05:52 AM
quote:
Originally posted by sts205cdr:
Didn't John Young sneak a pair of pliers aboard on Gemini 10?
What on Earth (or perhaps I should say out of this world) would he have taken them for?
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sts205cdr
Member Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted 08-04-2009 11:11 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Max Q:
What on Earth (or perhaps I should say out of this world) would he have taken them for?
I don't have Guenter's book handy, but if I recall correctly, Young complained during training about manipulating some knobs or controls of some kind with his gloves, and insisted that a pair of pliers would help. His requests were denied, probably from concern he'd damage the equipment. That's the story behind the big styrofoam pliers "gotcha" in the white room. Only years later did Young confide in Guenter that he'd gone ahead and smuggled them anyway...Here's another one I just remembered: Guenter helped Wally Schirra smuggle a tiny, airline-sized bottle of scotch aboard Apollo 7. Wally drank it right after splashdown to sort of cap off his career at NASA. |
Joel Katzowitz
Member Posts: 808
From: Marietta GA USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 08-04-2009 06:55 PM
Speaking of Schirra... I currently own a one dollar Silver Certificate that he carried on his MA-8 mission and then gifted to Bill Dana for his birthday. Dana's birthday is October 5, which was two days after Schirra's flight. The bill was folded into eight panels suggesting it could have been tucked into a small spacesuit pouch. |
music_space
Member Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 08-07-2009 01:12 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Philip:
...was able to take a bottle of wine onboard the space shuttle in June 1985.
One could imagine that wine would evolve differently in zero-g... Now a bottle of wine "caved" in long-duration zero-g would be one flown artefact which might have a quality rarely exhibited: a difference from a similar, earth-bound chemical compound which you could experience sensorially (in this instance, through taste). |
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