How John Young smuggled a corned-beef sandwich into space

John Young (left) and Gus Grissom flew on the first crewed Gemini flight, Gemini 3, on March 23, 1965. Here, they're shown in the spacecraft simulator at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis. One additional "passenger" on the real flight was a corned-beef sandwich that Young smuggled aboard in his pocket. While John Young, who died on Jan. 5 at age 87, is famous for his Apollo 16 moonwalks and his role as commander of the first space shuttle mission, the NASA astronaut is also remembered for a small scandal he triggered with a sneaky act: smuggling a corned-beef sandwich into space. Young slipped the sandwich into his pocket just before launching on Gemini 3 on March 23, 1965.