# NASA's Gemini space food SNAFU **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2002, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834 "2002-03-29T23:43:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834/1 "2002-03-29T23:43:58Z")
I thought about putting this in café society but I will be happy with just the facts: (Google failed me this time!) The recent tread on the most complete food question mentioned that NASA developed a nutrition bar that was so distasteful that astronauts even refused to eat it. I then remembered a story I read on a book describing the adventures of the early astronauts and test pilots: in that book, in one of the Gemini missions, one astronaut smuggled a hamburger and just when he was reaching for it, his copilot was eating one of those space food bars, and he retorted more or less: “Man, I would give anything for a Hamburger” the pilot then said “here, have mine!!!” and the guys had a big chuckle, that is, until they got back to earth. NASA then told the astronauts that particles from that kind of food could wreak havoc on the air supply filters. Does anybody know if that tale is true? Who were the astronauts? Bonus kudos to the one that can find me the book title! (More or less “adventures in air and space”? the problem is that I read that book in Spanish when I was little but I believe it was a tradition from an original English American publication.) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834/2 "2002-03-29T23:47:18Z")
Duh!, I meant “Translated from” not Tradition! ---
**Author:** ![Swede\_Hollow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Swede\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swede_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834/3 "2002-03-30T01:12:46Z")
I don’t know the answer to this but… Did NASA maybe invent Vegemite? ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834/4 "2002-03-30T01:24:53Z")
Here’s the problem with your Googling: it wasn’t a hamburger, but a [corned beef sandwich](http://www.nasm.si.edu/galleries/attm/nojs/food.1.html). Gus Grissom brought it with him on the first manned Gemini flight, Gemini 3, and offered it to John Young. Young later had food problems on the Apollo 16 mission. The astronauts were ordered to drink as much electrolyte-laced orange juice as possible to keep their heart muscles toned. That prompted this exchange, after Young and Charlie Duke returned to the LM after their first moonwalk: > [@](#): > > 128:50:37 Young: I have the farts, again. I got them again, Charlie. I don’t know what the hell gives them to me. Certainly not…I think it’s acid stomach. I really do. > > 128:50:44 Duke: It probably is. > > 128:50:45 Young: (Laughing) I mean, I haven’t eaten this much citrus fruit in 20 years! And I’ll tell you one thing, in another 12 fucking days, I ain’t never eating any more. And if they offer to sup(plement) me potassium with my breakfast, I’m going to throw up! (Pause) I like an occasional orange. Really do. (Laughs) But I’ll be durned if I’m going to be buried in oranges. > > \ > > [Astronaut Joe Allen makes the next call from Houston.] > 128:53:47 Allen: Orion, Houston. > 128:53:53 Young: Yes, sir. > > 128:53:58 England: Okay, John. We have a hot mike. > > 128:54:07 Young: How long have we had that? ---
**Author:** ![Grok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Grok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grok)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834/5 "2002-03-30T03:01:00Z")
Actually, I’m pretty sure it was John Young who smuggled the sandwich aboard. In reading about that incident I recall Young saying something to the effect of, “Here, have a bite Skipper.” Grissom was the commander of that mission. The brass at NASA weren’t amused, but this apparently didn’t stop Young from walking on the moon and later flying the space shuttle’s first mission. Lotsa balls on that Young for pulling that stunt on his first space mission. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834/6 "2002-03-30T03:11:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Lotsa balls on that Young for pulling that stunt on his first space mission. Heh. I think it kinda goes with the job. ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834/7 "2002-03-30T06:06:30Z")
Grok, you’re correct. If I had read the linked page more carefully, I would have seen that it was, in fact, John Young who brought the sandwich. I did find one other reference to the sandwich being Grissom’s, but this seems erroneous. Apparently, Grissom was not scheduled to eat at all during the 5 hour flight, and it was Wally Schirra who gave the sandwich to Young before launch. Y’all might also be interested to know that the Google search string Gemini+corned+beef also brings up [this recipe](http://recipe-beef.com/12/072640.SHTML). Notice the URL at the bottom of the page. Hail Google! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2002, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasas-gemini-space-food-snafu/100834/8 "2002-03-30T06:54:04Z")
Wow! Another mystery solved, thanks **Grok** and **TheeGrumpy**!!! On hindsight I think that something got lost in the translation. I can picture the traducers dealing then with “corned beef sandwich”: - Translator #1: We can use “empanada de carne con maiz”. - Translator #2: No, let’s use “sandwich de carne con maiz” - Translator #1: But “sandwich” is an “anglicismo” (word borrowed from English (those Royal language academics from Spain are a pain)) - Translator #3: Fine, but 1) many people in Hispanic countries will not figure this dish, 2) this is not important to the plot, and 3) it is too long a name. - Translator #1: All right, I tell you what “señor sabelotodo” (mr. Know it all) , let’s just call it “hamburguesa” after all it is the crumbs what are important to the story. And the rest, is SDMB history . . .