[TRANSCRIPT]

Melissa Yingst Huber

Astronauts face many dangerous circumstances when being launched into space, such as debris flying across the universe, technical difficulties, and deadly cosmic rays. But what if you heard that a corned beef sandwich tops all of those scary situations? How much harm could a tiny corned beef sandwich really cause?

Well, in the 1960’s, during the pinnacle of the space race, food was unique for astronauts. It was either packed very tightly into compressed packages, or it was “purated into a tube.” Sounds appetizing right? Food needed to be packaged that way to prevent crumbs from lodging into important space instruments.

John Young, an astronaut during the Gemini mission, broke a major protocol by bringing a packed corned beef sandwich from earth onto the ship! While the particles of the sandwich flew around the cabin, no harm was done to the space equipment.

Young was reprimanded, but he did continue on with his astronaut career and later participated in the Apollo mission and walked on the moon. Corned beef sandwiches may taste good on our planet, but they do not belong in outer space!