In 1965, while on the Gemini 3 mission with fellow astronaut Gus Grissom, John Young reached into his pocket and offered Grissom a piece of a corn beef sandwich he had smuggled onboard the spacecraft and into orbit.

Grissom was stunned and had a good chuckle over it.

Actually, both astronauts had a good laugh. However, Congress was not amused by the prank. Young, who died on Jan. 5, 2018, was reprimanded for the stunt.

The problem was simple, Young and Grissom were supposed to be testing the new foods that were coated in gelatin for space flight because, apparently, food crumbled in space. Grissom took one bite, but had to stop because crumbs started floating everywhere due to microgravity.

Back on Earth, the House of Representatives' appropriations committee caught wind of the stunt. A couple of congressmen got upset, thinking the stunt meant Young and Grissom had ignored the space food and their orders, thereby costing the American people millions of dollars.

NASA eventually had to assure Congress that no, it wasn't going to allow any more contraband corned beef sandwiches into space.

For the record, Fellow astronaut Wally Schirra had purchased the sandwich two days earlier from the popular "Wolfie's Restaurant and Sandwich Shop" and slipped it to Young.

Young later became the ninth man to walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 16. Grissom died in the Apollo 1 accident.

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