John young astronaut sandwich in space

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.

It was the first U.S. mission to carry two astronauts — Young and his crewmate, Gus Grissom.

The Astronaut That Smuggled A Corned Beef Sandwich Into Space

But the Soviets had launched their own two-person mission, Voskhod 2, less than a week earlier, so tensions were already high among politicians when Gemini 3 safely made it to space and efficiently completed its objectives.

The corned-beef sandwich sparked a brief conversation between Young and Grissom, according to the Gemini 3 transcript.

The chat lasted for only about a minute of the nearly 6-hour mission.[John Young in Photos: Astronaut, Moonwalker, How the First Corned Beef Sandwich in Space Was Smuggled ... TYP