Eye-Popping Insider Secrets About NASA That Are Totally Out Of This World

Since President Dwight D. Eisenhower set up NASA in 1958, the space agency has landed men on the moon and discovered new planets. It has explored Mars and even sent a satellite to Jupiter. It is one of the most high-profile agencies in the United States. Yet there’s still plenty about the organization you probably don’t know. These eye-opening insider secrets reveal some of the crazy truths behind NASA’s incredible history.

1. NASA was once sued for landing on Mars

In 1997 three Yemeni men took legal action against NASA for landing a spacecraft on Mars. They claimed that they’d inherited the planet 3,000 years ago and could even back it up with the necessary documents. Of course, it didn’t take long for NASA to shoot down the ridiculous lawsuit. An international treaty signed in 1967 states that everything beyond Earth is the property of humanity, rather than a single nation — or three men.

2. There’s a NASA program to protect aliens from human bacteria

Just in case we ever do find life beyond Earth, NASA has set up its own Office of Planetary Protection. That’s not to protect us from them, however. It’s actually to keep them safe from us, ensuring no bacteria traveling from Earth can contaminate the other planets.

3. NASA hopes to send humans to Mars by 2030

NASA will land humans on Mars by 2030. Or at least, that’s its current aim, as outlined by former president Barack Obama. The initial mission will involve just getting astronauts there and back again. But further down the line, NASA wants to send humans there for “an extended time,” as Obama put it.

4. The original moon-landing tapes were wiped

In 2006 NASA admitted to the blunder of a lifetime: the original tapes of the 1969 moon landings were nowhere to be found. When they eventually turned up, they were blank — having been erased and re-used to cut costs. Luckily, CBS still had a few decent copies of the original news broadcast on hand, saving the blushes of pretty much the entire organization.

5. NASA pays people to stay in bed

Ever wanted to get paid to lay in bed all day? Of course you have. Well, how about working for NASA? From time to time, the space agency conducts “Bed Rest Studies.” This requires participants to lie on their backs for 70 days straight. In exchange, NASA will hand over a whopping $18,000. The studies help NASA scientists figure out how to keep astronauts healthy while they are traveling in space.

6. The Super Soaker was invented by a NASA scientist

NASA scientist Lonnie Johnson made a name for himself within the organization after working on the original stealth bomber. But he was also the brains behind a household toy: the much-loved Super Soaker water pistol, which first appeared on shelves in 1990.

7. This big bang can’t be explained

Space is basically full of the unknown. And while scientists have done a pretty good job of figuring out what’s in our immediate vicinity, there’s one sound they haven’t been able to explain. In 2009 an instrument in the atmosphere received a signal from light years away — a “booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted,” according to NASA scientist Alan Kogut. To this day, it’s an absolute mystery.

8. Your toaster could basically put a man on the moon

There’s no denying that NASA operates at the cutting edge of technology. But 1969’s tech paled in comparison to what we have now — which is why the computer system in your toaster might actually be more advanced than the one that sent astronauts to the moon. The Apollo Guidance Computer had only 64 kb of memory, maxing out at 0.043 MHz. Next time, then, you might think twice before complaining that your laptop is slow.

9. NASA was once fined $400 by Australia

When NASA spacecraft debris landed in Australia, the country slapped the space agency with a $400 fine — for littering. In 1979 parts of the abandoned Skylab, a manned orbiting laboratory, managed to land on the west coast of the country rather than the planned target of the Indian Ocean. The fine was eventually paid 20 years later after a radio DJ in California raised the money from his audience.

10. You’re not an astronaut until you’ve reached 62 miles

Just because you work for NASA, it doesn’t mean you are automatically an astronaut. In fact, NASA will only confirm your astronaut status if you travel 100 kilometers — that’s 62 miles — above the Earth. This is where space officially begins — at least according to the World Air Sports Federation, whose metrics NASA uses to determine who is or isn’t an astronaut.

11. Forgetting to convert to metric cost $125 million

Everyone has a bad day at the office every now and then. But that excuse probably didn’t fly for the engineers who managed to lose a $125 million NASA spacecraft. The Mars Climate Orbiter’s navigation commands were incorrectly uploaded because half the team was using imperial measurements while the other was using metric. You couldn’t make it up.

12. Cape Canaveral’s location saves fuel

You might wonder why NASA chose Cape Canaveral to be its most famous launch site. After all, the weather is bad in the summer, with storms besieging Florida’s coastline. But as space historian Roger Launius told Scientific American in 2009, the weather can be tricky everywhere you go. And Cape Canaveral is in close proximity to the equator, where the linear velocity is far greater — meaning spacecraft launching from there won’t require as much fuel to make it to space.

13. NASA designed a now-banned super-fast swimsuit

Just like airplane pilots and astronauts, Olympic swimmers have to contend with the forces of drag. That’s why NASA teamed up with Speedo in 2004 to design a swimsuit that would repel drag. Unfortunately, NASA’s research into aerodynamics was actually too successful when applied to swimwear. The incredibly effective suit was eventually banned for giving its wearers an unfair advantage.

14. It had to resort to looking for spacecraft parts on eBay

Back in 2002, NASA officials were engaged in a “scavenger hunt” for spacecraft parts, according to the United Space Alliance’s Jeff Carr. The alliance, which maintains NASA’s fleet of space shuttles, was forced to turn to websites such as eBay to find replacement parts for its older craft. The necessary electronics were so outdated that they weren’t even in production anymore — but were crucial to ensuring the shuttles still operated smoothly.

15. Work has begun on a warp drive

Think traveling through hyperspace only happens in science-fiction films? Think again. By 2012, NASA had already started working on an actual warp drive, just like the ones seen in Star Trek. While the tech might be years away from coming to fruition, NASA scientists believe that bending the fabric of space and time could actually be feasible.

16. Neil Armstrong almost wasn’t an astronaut at all

Neil Armstrong may have been the first man to land on the moon, but he almost never made it into NASA at all. His astronaut application was submitted a week late — and if it wasn’t for one of his friends who already worked at the agency, who bumped it into the pile of considered applicants, he would most likely have been rejected.

17. A NASA intern was jailed after having sex on the moon…

In 2002 NASA intern Thad Roberts was sentenced to 100 months in prison after having sex on the moon. Or rather, sex on some moon rocks, which he’d stolen straight from NASA. He was caught trying to sell the rocks online — but not before he’d done the deed with his girlfriend.

18. The first men on the moon had their own life insurance scheme

Unsurprisingly, the original Apollo astronauts didn’t qualify for life insurance before their trip to the moon. Luckily, NASA came up with a rather ingenious backup plan. Before they left, the space farers signed special postcard-sized documents. In the event that they didn’t make it back, the “insurance covers” would have been invaluable to collectors — giving their families something to fall back on. Thankfully, it never came to that, but the covers still became sought-after collectors’ items.

19. Quinoa might fuel the future of space travel

NASA is considering taking quinoa into space. The grain crop is packed with nutrients and is easily digested — making it a perfect contender in NASA’s Controlled Ecological Life Support System, a program that tests possible crops for extended, manned journeys into space.

20. Space insulin is a thing

NASA’s work isn’t only about improving the well-being of its astronauts. In 1998 a team of researchers grew insulin crystals in space, using their increased size (compared to Earth-grown crystals) to develop a new form of insulin. And it was so effective that the new form only needed to be injected by diabetics once every three days, as opposed to multiple times per day.

21. Snakes in space

In a 1994 interview, Dr. Story Musgrave said, “On two of my missions — and I still don’t have an answer — I have seen a snake out there. Six, seven, eight feet long. It is rubbery because it has internal waves in it, and it follows you for a rather long time. The more you fly in space, the more you see an incredible amount of things out there, and that sort of thing brings to you, really, a certainty that other living creatures are out there.” And you can make of that what you will.

22. The gray space station that turned orange

If you look at photographs of the Space Station, you’ll see that it’s predominantly a silvery gray color. But former Italian Air Force pilot Samantha Cristoforetti saw something altogether different. To her, the station was a vivid orange color. As she wrote in a blog post, “The enormous solar panels were inundated with a blaze of orange light — vivid, warm, almost alien.” Yet this was a mystery that was later solved. It’s a rarely seen phenomenon, but when the sun hits the space station’s solar panels in a particular way, an orange hue is cast over the structure.

23. Space makes you taller

One astronaut appeared to break all records when it came to astronaut height gain. In a January 2018 tweet, Japanese national Norishige Kanai announced that he had gained around three and a half inches after just three weeks on the Space Station. That really would have been something. But shortly afterward, he sheepishly withdrew his claim. Blaming a measuring error, he corrected the amount of his height gain to less than an inch.

24. Ghostly green light

When astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. got back to Earth, it wasn’t what he’d done that brought him notoriety. Rather, it was what he said he’d seen while in space. He reportedly claimed to have observed a circular object emitting green light speeding toward his ship. Fortunately, it didn’t make any contact. But what was it? To this day, the apparition remains unexplained.

25. Knock, knock — who’s there?

Something strange happened during Yang Liwei’s 2003 flight. In a 2016 article, the BBC quoted him as saying that he heard “someone knocking the body of the spaceship just as knocking an iron bucket with a wooden hammer.” Apparently, this sound “neither came from outside nor inside the spaceship.” Yang even peeked out of his capsule window — but saw nothing. And it’s all the more mysterious since, because of the physical properties of space, the only sound that you should hear in it is silence.

26. Alien bacteria?

Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov told the Russian news agency TASS in November 2017 that bacteria discovered on the exterior of the Space Station was of extraterrestrial origin. He explained, “And now it turns out that somehow these swabs reveal bacteria that were absent during the launch of the ISS module. That is, they have come from outer space and settled along the external surface.” Sounds more than a little scary — but thankfully the Russian added that the bacteria posed no danger.

27. It’s all in the genes

Scott Kelly arrived back on Earth in March 2016 after 340 days on the Space Station. But when NASA scientists compared his DNA to his identical twin brother Mark's, they found Scott’s DNA was now markedly different. The Daily Telegraph quoted Scott’s reaction: “What? My DNA changed by seven percent. Who knew?! I no longer have to call Mark my identical twin brother anymore.” NASA’s work on understanding what happens to the human body — and its DNA — in space continues.

28. Clouds of smoke

In 2004 Russian news website Pravda.ru published some eye-catching claims from the cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalyonok. He had spent a total of 217 days in space — including time aboard Soviet Union space stations. The astronaut told the news website, “When I was working at the Salyut orbital station, I saw something strange in a porthole one day. The object was the size of a finger. I was surprised to see it was an orbiting object. It was hard to determine the size and the speed of an object in space... The object split into two interconnected pieces. It was reminiscent of a dumbbell.”

29. Mysteries of space fire

NASA has been running a program called the Flame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX) aboard the Space Station. FLEX researcher Dan Dietrich told Space.com in 2011, “In space, molecular diffusion draws oxygen to the flame and combustion products away from the flame at a rate 100 times slower than the buoyant flow on Earth.” Fire has a lower temperature aboard the Space Station and burning the gasoline component heptane produces a weird sphere-shaped flame. Yet scientists say they have much more to learn about fire processes in space.

30. Was it a UFO?

During his second space mission in 1991, cosmonaut Musa Manarov was filming the docking of a spaceship that had traveled to the Soviet’s MIR space station. On camera, he caught a strange object, and you can still see the film online today. The cosmonaut was quoted in Shane McMinn’s 2016 book Conspiracies and Solar Secrets as saying, “It is possible that it was a kind of UFO. We can’t say with any certainty what it was.”

31. Strange rays

As far back as the first manned flight to the Moon by Apollo 11 in 1969, astronauts have described weird phenomena. The two members of the Apollo 11 crew who landed on the Moon — Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — both reported strange visuals. These took the form of flashes of light. It turned out that what the astronauts had seen were cosmic rays penetrating their eyeballs. These rays are high-energy, sub-atomic particles, and we don’t see them on Earth because our atmosphere absorbs them.

32. What did this astronaut see?

Christopher Cassidy made global headlines in 2013 after his second space mission. He said that he’d seen an unidentified object floating past the station when he’d looked through one of the International Space Station’s portholes. He’d reported this weird apparition to Mission Control, too. It was a puzzle — but not for long. In August 2013 NASA reported, “That object has been identified by Russian flight controllers as an antenna cover from the Zvezda service module.” Even so, there are still those convinced that Cassidy had seen a UFO.

33. Astronauts get a free facelift

Speaking to Wired in 2014, Marsha Ivins described one of the stranger things that can happen to an astronaut’s body. She said, “Without gravity, bodily fluids move toward your head. It’s a great facelift.” However, there’s another consequence. Ivans added, “As that fluid shifts north, you get an enormous headache.” Fortunately, these symptoms are soon relieved by having a good long pee. So, ultimately, the facelift — and thankfully the headache — are transient.

34. A line of mysterious lights

While he was on the International Space Station that Chinese-American Leroy Chiao saw something extraordinary. Chiao told HuffPost in 2014, “I saw some lights that seemed to be in a line, and it was almost like an upside-down check mark, and I saw them fly by and thought it was awfully strange.” What did he see? Chiao was cautious in his analysis. He said, “I’m skeptical of claims that we’ve been visited by aliens… but I don’t rule it out 100 percent. I have an open mind, and I do believe there’s other life in the universe.”

35. Space music

As their spaceship flew around to the dark side of the Moon — where there was no radio contact with Mission Control — the crew of Apollo 10 heard something entirely unexpected in their headsets: music. This sound took the form of an eerie whistling. And, apparently spooked by this unearthly sound, NASA kept the noise secret for nearly half a century — until 2016. Then the space agency released recordings of the music that had also been heard on other missions. NASA says all the sounds amounted to were radio interference.

36. Disappearing legs

As NASA notes on its website, “On Earth, our lower body and legs carry our weight. This helps keep our bones and muscles strong. In space, astronauts float. They do not use their legs much. Their lower backs begin to lose strength. Their leg muscles do too. The bones begin to get weak and thin.” And that explains why you often see pictures of astronauts exercising onboard orbiting space stations. With prolonged periods in space, they must work out to maintain their physical strength.

37. Space fireflies

While he was up in space, John Glenn noticed a peculiar phenomenon through the widow of his ship. It seems that unidentified specks of light were floating around the spacecraft — rather like tiny stars. Glenn referred to the mystery particles as “fireflies.” Mission Control worried that the spaceship was malfunctioning or that Glenn might be hallucinating. It was only later during the next American spaceflight in May 1962 that NASA identified the phenomenon as harmless droplets of condensation from the spaceships.

38. Insomnia in space

In space, as you orbit the Earth, the sun goes down and then rises again every 90 minutes. This phenomenon, combined with the visual disruption of cosmic rays, can make regular sleep patterns difficult to maintain. To keep a sense of structured time, then, astronauts abide by something called Coordinated Universal Time. Simply, they do their best to simulate the regular day patterns of us Earth-bound humans.

39. A beer can in space?

In 1999 James McDivitt related his space experience as commander of the Gemini 4 mission to the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. The astronaut recalled, “Ed was asleep, and I was doing something in the spacecraft. I looked outside, just glanced up, and there was something out there. It had a geometrical shape similar to a beer can or a pop can, and with a little thing maybe like a pencil or something sticking out of it.” Later, McDivitt was able to identify what he’d seen from photos he took at the time. However, he decided it was nothing more than distorted reflections in the porthole glass.

40. The clumsy astronaut

Speaking to Wired in 2014, astronaut Marsha Ivins described the actual physical explanation for decreased co-ordination after a space trip. She explained, “Your balance is off, and you have to relearn how to move in a gravity field. If I turned my head, I would fall over. Muscles you haven’t used in weeks have to reengage to help you do everyday stuff like walk, stand and hold things. It can take days or weeks to get your Earth legs back.”