During the pioneering spaceflight of Gemini 3 on March 23, 1965, astronaut John Young became the first person to smuggle an object into space. This historic item was a corned beef sandwich.

Young and fellow astronaut Gus Grissom, the command pilot, were aboard the orbiter, Molly Brown, launched into space by a Titan 2 rocket. Two hours after launch, Young revealed the contraband object and began munching on the sandwich while in space. Grissom was caught off guard.

Like Us on Facebook

The corned beef sandwich was given to Young by fellow NASA astronaut Wally Schirra, who was known for his practical jokes. Schirra originally bought the sandwich and gave it to Young during the morning of the launch.

It's really difficult to eat a sandwich in space, however. The smuggled sandwich was challenging to munch on as crumbs broke off, floating in microgravity inside the capsule. The tiny particles proved to be a serious technical concern as these could ruin electronics or get into the eyes of the astronauts.

NASA's Gemini program's mission was to test new technology for the upcoming Apollo lunar mission. The tests included eating different kinds of food in space. NASA provided food coated with gelatin to prevent the crumbs from floating away and damaging equipment.

Gemini 3 was also the first manned spacecraft to utilize maneuvering thrusters in space.

This literally out of this world corned beef sandwich was purchased from Wolfie's Restaurant and Sandwich Shop located at the Ramada Inn in Cocoa Beach, Florida two days before the mission launch.

When the story broke that a sandwich was smuggled into space, some members of the Congress were irked and said Young had wasted millions of taxpayers' dollars by not testing the food provided by NASA during the flight.

Today, most sandwiches eaten in space are in the form of wraps to reduce the quantity of dangerous crumbs flying around that could destroy electronics and equipment on a spacecraft.

A replica of Young's corned beef sandwich is currently preserved in resin and is on display at the Grissom Memorial Museum in Mitchell, Indiana.

TagsNASA, Gemini 3, corned beef sandwich space NASA astronaut, space first sandwich, NASA Astronaut Smuggled a Corned Beef Sandwich in Space