T O P I C R E V I E W |
ASCAN1984 | 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 | 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 | Joe Allen took a remote camera shutter trigger aboard STS-5. |
sts205cdr | Didn't John Young sneak a pair of pliers aboard on Gemini 10? |
xlsteve | I'm not sure if he snuck it on, but I think the pliers came up at auction no too long ago. |
sts205cdr | 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 | Wally brought a Harmonica, and played Jingle Bells in orbit. |
Go4Launch | ...and the Apollo 8 crew brought the bells themselves. |
sts205cdr | A couple more: Apollo 14: Ed Mitchell carried 4 random number cards for his ESP experiment. Apollo 15: The Sieger covers. |
MrSpace86 | Gemini 3: Grissom's sandwich |
Rick Mulheirn | A packet of cigarettes on one of the Mercury flights; which one I do not recall. |
AstronautBrian | What about Gus Grissom's roll of Mercury dimes? |
4allmankind | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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). |