In 1965 , Command Pilot Gus Grissom and Pilot John Young successfully pilot the Gemini 3 spacecraft on a four - minute and forty - three - bit foreign mission into Earth ’s orbit , completed a handful of tests of the cunning ’s capabilities and retort safely to self-colored earth . Afterwards , their actions during the deputation were the study of a Congressional House Subcommittee hearing and both Congress and the NASA governance collapse Young strongly worded reprimands .
What rifle haywire ? It all starts with collation .
Tubes and Cubes
In the exploitation of space foods – some of the earliest of which were accommodate from items project for earthbound use in gamey - altitude , in high spirits - swiftness scenario by fighter jet fender – minimum weight and bulk and long - term preservation in utmost conditions were prioritize above relish , texture and presentation . While astronauts ’ enjoyment of the food was supposed to be factored into the world and selection of food items , their feedback was often brush aside .
The USA and USSR both started off using puréed foods in aluminum thermionic tube for outer space flights . The food could be feed through a polystyrene extension tube unite to the astronaut or cosmonaut ’ helmet . Both state used a spacious mixed bag of foods in these containers , include John Glenn ’s first orbital meal : applesauce . Astronauts had their tubes complemented by bite - sized compressed food cubes , created to address scientists ’ concerns about loose - float crumbs that could n’t well be clean up and might damage equipment , clog dancing vents or be inhaled by the astronauts . Flavors included Viscount St. Albans , cheese and crackers , peanut vine butter and fruitcake , but it appears most cosmonaut did n’t notice a difference in flavor from one cube to the next .
Soviet cosmonauts , meanwhile , rounded out their meal with fresh items like bread , salami , jelly , joint veal , apples , orange and caviar . Scientists there had the same concerns about crumbs , but instead of putting effort and money into charge - appropriate food , they concentrated on methods and equipment for cleaning the rotter up . Red Menace 1 , America 0 .
Stowaway Sandwich
When Gemini 3 was ready to launch , both the place race and the infinite food berth were pretty unappetizing . If JFK wanted a man on the synodic month by the close of the decennium , NASA had plenty of oeuvre to do , and each flight and each charge had to achieve certain goal to move the whole operation toward that end . One of the jobs the Gemini 3 crew was task with was testing some food tubes and some raw specially packaged fresh items . Scientists want to know for future flight how the promotion fare and how well the gang could play and eat at the same metre . Grissom and Young were given several intellectual nourishment tubes and sealed large number containing fresh hot frump , brownies , chicken leg and applesauce .
Knowing that Grissom often complained of the “ dehydrated goody trump up by NASA dietitian , ” Walter Schirra , an spaceman who had acquired a report as a jokester , decided that the Gemini crew would have a little something additional to munch on while in orbit . The day of the launching , he go to Wolfie ’s Restaurant , a deli not far from the space nerve center , and bought a cured beef on rye whisky sandwich . He convey the sandwich back to the groundwork and slip it Young , who continue to hide it in his pouch smuggle it on circuit board the workmanship .
About an 60 minutes and 45 hour into the escape , Young pull the sandwich from his sac and handed it to his surprised Commander , chivy the following rally .
A Crumby Reaction
In all , the astronauts spent about 30 seconds babble out about the sandwich and only ten seconds of that time tasting it before it begin to fall asunder in the absence of gravity and Grissom tucked it away . The half - instant incident created a ripe batch of side effect , though .
Congress , responsible for NASA ’s budget grant , was n’t too disport with the idea that extremely trained and purportedly extremely disciplined astronauts feel that a practical joke was appropriate and/or suspicious on an expensive and high - profile blank space mission .
Schirra , Grissom and especially Young receive a full medical dressing - down from Congress and the press , despite their fourth-year technological managers coming to their defense . The Associate Administrator of the Office of Manned Spaceflight was quick to tell Congress that , “ there was no hurt to the observational program that was carried on , nor was there any detriment to the actual carrying out of the foreign mission because of the ingestion of the sandwich . ”
In the remainder , though , NASA ’s then - Administrator James Webb sided with Congress instead of his pilot and Young was officially chide . The incident did n’t do much to damage the astronauts ’ careers – Young served in the Apollo Program , land on the moon during Apollo 16 and later on pilot the Shuttle ; Schirra flew several more missionary post ; Grissom flew on the first Apollo delegacy was schedule to pilot on the first Apollo commission , but died during a pre - launch test and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor – but it did incite a bustle of regulations regulate what could and could not be consumed in space .
After the corned beef boldly went where no sandwich had gone before , NASA only allow formally sanctioned food on ballistic capsule and the days of cosmonaut packing their own lunches were over .
