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Author Topic:   Items astronauts have snuck into space
ASCAN1984
Member

Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-28-2009 03:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ASCAN1984   Click Here to Email ASCAN1984     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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

posted 07-28-2009 04:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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
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Posts: 977
From: Michigan
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 07-28-2009 04:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Greggy_D   Click Here to Email Greggy_D     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Joe Allen took a remote camera shutter trigger aboard STS-5.

sts205cdr
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Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 07-28-2009 04:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for sts205cdr   Click Here to Email sts205cdr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Didn't John Young sneak a pair of pliers aboard on Gemini 10?

xlsteve
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Posts: 391
From: Holbrook MA, USA
Registered: Jul 2008

posted 07-28-2009 04:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for xlsteve   Click Here to Email xlsteve     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm not sure if he snuck it on, but I think the pliers came up at auction no too long ago.

sts205cdr
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Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 07-28-2009 08:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for sts205cdr   Click Here to Email sts205cdr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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
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Posts: 1208
From: Upcountry, Maui, Hawaii
Registered: Mar 2002

posted 07-29-2009 04:14 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Rizz     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wally brought a Harmonica, and played Jingle Bells in orbit.

Go4Launch
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Posts: 542
From: Seminole, Fla.
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 07-29-2009 07:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Go4Launch   Click Here to Email Go4Launch     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
...and the Apollo 8 crew brought the bells themselves.

sts205cdr
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Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 07-29-2009 07:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for sts205cdr   Click Here to Email sts205cdr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A couple more:

Apollo 14: Ed Mitchell carried 4 random number cards for his ESP experiment.

Apollo 15: The Sieger covers.

MrSpace86
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Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2003

posted 07-30-2009 02:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MrSpace86   Click Here to Email MrSpace86     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Gemini 3: Grissom's sandwich

Rick Mulheirn
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Posts: 4167
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 07-30-2009 04:14 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Rick Mulheirn   Click Here to Email Rick Mulheirn     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A packet of cigarettes on one of the Mercury flights; which one I do not recall.

AstronautBrian
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Posts: 287
From: Louisiana
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 07-30-2009 06:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for AstronautBrian   Click Here to Email AstronautBrian     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What about Gus Grissom's roll of Mercury dimes?

4allmankind
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Posts: 1043
From: Dallas
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 07-30-2009 06:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for 4allmankind   Click Here to Email 4allmankind     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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
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Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 08-04-2009 04:23 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Philip   Click Here to Email Philip     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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
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Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 08-04-2009 05:52 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Max Q   Click Here to Email Max Q     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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?

sts205cdr
Member

Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 08-04-2009 11:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for sts205cdr   Click Here to Email sts205cdr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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

posted 08-04-2009 06:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Joel Katzowitz   Click Here to Email Joel Katzowitz     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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

posted 08-07-2009 01:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for music_space   Click Here to Email music_space     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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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