Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Gemini 3 and The World’s Most Controversial Corned Beef Sandwich

Starting point is 00:00:00 The quest to conquer space has had many problems and many unknowns that had to be overcome. Simple basic things on Earth can be quite difficult in the zero-gravity conditions of outer space. In 1965, two American astronauts found this out and learned the hard way why they have to have special foods for use on space flights. Learn more about Gemini 3 and the world's most controversial corned beef sandwich on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now.

Starting point is 00:00:55 Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Not every part of history gets equal attention. This is certainly the case with early space exploration. The first space flights get a lot of attention and the moon landings get a lot of attention, but many of the space flights that occurred in between get much less attention. And such is the case with Gemini 3. I'm guessing that most of you have probably never heard of Gemini 3, or if you did, you might not have even known it was Gemini 3 that you heard about.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Gemini 3 was the first manned mission in the Gemini program. These were the intermediary missions between the Mercury and Apollo programs. The Gemini capsules were basically larger versions of the Mercury capsules. They were designed for two astronauts instead of one, hence the name Gemini, and had technical upgrades. Gemini 1 and 2 were unmanned missions just designed to test the flightworthiness of the capsule and the rocket. The first mission with astronauts was to be Gemini 3. Gus Grissom and John Young were the two men selected to be on the first Gemini flight.

Starting point is 00:02:00 Gus Grissom was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts. He flew on the second Mercury mission and was the second American in space. He would later be killed in the Apollo 1 disaster less than two years later. Gemini 3 would be the first space flight for John Young. Young would go on to become one of the most accomplished astronauts in history. He would later fly on Gemini 10, orbit the moon on Apollo 10, land on the moon on Apollo 16, captain the very first space shuttle flight, and command one more space shuttle flight, before going on to become the chief of the astronaut office for NASA.

Starting point is 00:02:32 He was the first person ever to fly to space six times. The tradition at NASA at this time was to let the commander of the mission name the capsule. During the Mercury program, the capsules were given names like freedom, friendship, and faith. For the first Gemini mission, Gus Grissom named his capsule something radically different, the unsinkable Molly Brown. And there was a backstory to this choice. When Grissom flew to space for the first time, his capsule was named Liberty Bell 7. When it splash landed in the Atlantic Ocean, the explosive bolts on the door of the capsule blew early, causing the capsule to fill with water and sink.

Starting point is 00:03:07 A NASA investigation claimed that Grissom blew the bolt. bolts on the door early, but Grissom always maintained vehemently that he did no such thing and that the bolts on the door blew on their own. And just as an aside, the capsule and door were both recovered from the bottom of the sea in 1999. When the time came for Grissom to name his Gemini three capsule, he chose the hit title of the 1960 Broadway musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, just to make his point. NASA officials didn't particularly like the name decision, so he told them that it was either this or Titanic. They let him keep the unsinkable Molly Brown, and after that they didn't name any more capsules in the Gemini

Starting point is 00:03:44 program. Gemini 3 was to be a very short mission. He was really just proving the ability of the capsule to fly. The intended mission plan was only three orbits and it would last under five hours. Their primary job would be to test the capsule systems and flight maneuverability during their orbits. On March 23rd, 1965, Gemini 3 was launched into space from Cape Canaveral. Everything went according to plan. There were no problems with the launch or with the capsule. But they had a short break in their schedule, about two hours into the flight. It was then that John Young reached into the pocket of his spacesuit and pulled out a sandwich. The sandwich was not part of the plan, nor was it approved by the powers that be at NASA.

Starting point is 00:04:25 As far as we know, it was the first case of space contraband in history. To get really specific, it was a corned beef sandwich that was purchased two days earlier by Mercury astronaut Wally Shara. He bought it at Wolfie's Restaurant and Sandwich Shop at the Ramada Inn in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The entire incident in space took only about 10 seconds, and it was all captured on radio. The exact transcript is as follows. Quote, Grissom, what is it? Young, corned beef sandwich. Grissom, where did that come from?

Starting point is 00:04:56 Young, I brought it with me. Let's see how it tastes. Smells, doesn't it? Grissom. Yes, it's breaking up. I'm going to stick it in my pocket. Young, is it? It was a thought anyway.

Starting point is 00:05:06 Grissom, yep, young, not a very good one. Grissom, pretty good, though, if it would just hold together. End quote. Grissom actually took a bite before putting the sandwich back in his pocket. If you're rolling your eyes at this point, wondering why a sandwich in space is worth its own episode, it's because, within seconds, the astronauts realized that this was a very bad idea, and it all had to do with crumbs. There's a really good reason why the first astronauts all had to eat paste out of tubes. bread, especially rye bread, can easily crumble.

Starting point is 00:05:40 These tiny crumbs aren't a big deal on Earth. However, if they're floating around in a space capsule, a lot of bad things could happen. For starters, the astronauts could breathe the crumbs in, and they could get stuck in their lungs, or maybe float into someone's eye. Not a huge problem, but not something you want to deal with while you're in space. But the real big danger was crumbs getting into the electronics. If a crumb were lodged in the wrong place, it could cause a short circuit. Both astronauts realized what the danger was as soon as Young pulled the sandwich out.

Starting point is 00:06:11 The astronauts were lucky, and nothing happened. There were no bread-based medical incidents on board, and there were no crumb-induced short circuits. However, when they returned to Earth, they did get a good chewing out. There was a combination of both humor and seriousness about their chewing out. In his later autobiography, the head of the astronaut office, Deke Slayton, later admitted that he was aware of the sandwich. Despite the whole episode, only taking a few seconds, it got some congressional members' attention. In fact, there was a congressional budget committee to investigate the sandwich. The members of Congress were concerned that if they were eating sandwiches, they weren't doing

Starting point is 00:06:46 their other duties and were wasting millions of taxpayers' dollars. Some grandstanding members of Congress called it the $30 million sandwich. Congressman George Shipley of Illinois told the NASA administrator James Webb, quote, my thought is that to have one of the astronauts slip a sandwich aboard the vehicle, frankly, is just a little bit disgusting, end quote. The associate NASA administrator for manned spaceflight, George Mueller, responded, quote, we have taken steps to prevent a reoccurrence of corned beef sandwiches in future flights. John Young wrote about the committee hearing in his biography, saying, quote, today the theater that took place inside the meeting room that day strikes me as totally comic,

Starting point is 00:07:25 but I can assure you that those testifying for NASA at the time were not smiling, end quote. When John Young commanded the first space shuttle mission, on the menu was, corn beef, albeit not in sandwich form. When astronauts want to eat something sandwich-related in space nowadays, they have to use a tortilla. The infamous sandwich in question has been lost to history. However, another corn beef sandwich from Wolfie's restaurant was preserved. It is encased in acrylic and is on display at the Gus Grissom Memorial Museum in Mitchell, Indiana. Wolfie's Restaurant, the source of the sandwich, closed in 2002. In the end, despite the congressional investigation, there were no punishments and everyone moved on.

Starting point is 00:08:09 However, the incident was not forgotten. Since this happened, no other contraband sandwiches have been taken into space, and for the most part, bread is still verboten in spaceflight. The flight director for Gemini 3, Chris Kraft, wrote in 2001, quote, No matter how brave or focused an astronaut is, there is a tension in spaceflight that none of us on the ground can truly appreciate. A moment of diversion up there is no bad thing. But according to John Young, however, the real problem with the sandwich wasn't the crumbs. He later said in his biography, quote,

Starting point is 00:08:42 It didn't even have mustard on it. And there was no pickle. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just wanted to extend a big thank you to everyone who is supporting the show over at patreon.com. I have show merchandise available there, including hoodies, t-shirts, and stickers. Plus, it really just helps me get this show out every single day,

Starting point is 00:09:10 including, of course, weekends and holidays. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you too can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Gemini 3 and The World’s Most Controversial Corned Beef Sandwich

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