These Are The Weirdest Things Ever Sent Into Outer Space

Satellites, spaceships, and... a corned beef sandwich? No, this isn't the design concept for an outer space-themed deli. These are just some of the things we here on Earth have launched into the cosmos. Sure, it makes sense to send satellites and spaceships into orbit, but a sandwich? Yet, as it turns out, there are far stranger things floating around up there than just somebody's lunch.

1. Buzz Lightyear

In 2008 the action figure Buzz Lightyear arrived at the International Space Station aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. The toy spent the next 15 months in orbit during the STS-128 mission. The little plastic space cadet was selected for this special mission as part of an educational program between NASA and Disney.

2. Dinosaur bones

In 1985 and 1998, astronauts took dinosaur bones into orbit. The first round of fossils came from a baby Maiasaura, making it the first dinosaur in space. They were taken care of by astronaut Loren Acton during his trip to SpaceLab 2. Endeavor, in 1998, took the skull of a Coelophysis to the Mir space station.

3. Luke Skywalker's lightsaber — and other Star Wars toys

In 2007 Star Wars celebrated its 30th anniversary in serious style. The prop, from Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi, spent two weeks in space aboard the space shuttle Discovery for its mission STS-120. Seasoned astronaut Jim Reilly could see the symbolic connection. "A lot of what we're doing right now was science fiction when I was growing up," he said at the time. "I think it's a neat link because it combines two space themes all at one time."

4. Doritos ad

In 2008 the EISCAT European space station used an array of radars to beam an ad, coded in binary, toward a solar system in the Ursa Major constellation. That ad was for Doritos, which needed to make a donation to the space station to get the ad broadcast. “It’s not big money, but it could be the thin end of the wedge to using our resources in a new way,” the EISCAT director Tony van Eyken said at the time. 

5. Pizza

In 2001 Pizza Hut spent over a million dollars on a publicity stunt to deliver their pizza to the International Space Station. Unfortunately, the American astronauts on board couldn't eat the pizza because NASA didn't want to commercialize its spacecraft. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachov did, however, get to enjoy a slice of out-of-this-world pizza. Hopefully, he enjoyed the extra salt put on the pie to break through the dulled tastebuds of astronauts.

6. The Beatles

Well, kind of. Instead of sending the Fab Four floating through space, NASA decided to beam one of the band's most popular tunes into the cosmos in 2008. Their song of choice? "Across The Universe." "I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe," Yoko Ono said.

7. Tesla Roadster

Researchers blasted a 2008-model Tesla Roadster into orbit in 2018. A dummy payload for Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon Heavy test flight, the car actually didn't go up alone. Seated behind the wheel was "Starman," a dummy dressed as an astronaut with "Life on Mars" playing in his ears. The car and its driver are still out there today, over 200 million miles away from Earth.

8. Wright Flyer

The Wright brothers always knew they'd find a way to fly — little did they know they'd one day make it to space, too. Pieces of the original Wright Flyer were taken into orbit by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission. Mark Smith also attempted to do so on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

9. Animals

To the shock and concern of animal rights activists, a large number and variety of animals have been sent into orbit since the start of the Space Race. The most well-known are Laika, the Soviet dog, and Ham, the first chimpanzee in space. In June 2021, SpaceX launched Hawaiian bobtail squid up to the International Space Station.

10. Water bears

There is one animal that's fared pretty well in orbit: tardigrades, also known as "water bears." These microscopic creatures are known for their ability to withstand everything from extreme temperatures to radiation, and they even survived when exposed to the vacuum of outer space. They hitched a ride aboard the Falcon 9 rocket in 2021.

11. Text messages

In 2009 NASA sent a whopping 25,878 text messages into space. It was part of a project with Cosmos magazine called "Hello From Earth" to help promote Australia's National Science Week. The messages were sent via satellite toward the planet Gliese 581d. We don't know if any E.T.s have read them yet, though, because the texts won't arrive until December 2029.

12. A corned beef sandwich

On March 23, 1965, astronaut John Young actually snuck a contraband corned beef sandwich into his space suit pocket during the Gemini III mission. In all fairness, though, Young did share the sandwich with his commander, Virgil "Gus" Grissom. Grissom put the remainder of the snack into his own pocket so that the bread crumbs didn't float behind any highly sensitive equipment.

13. Human remains

For those already planning to be cremated, why not have your ashes scattered from space? The first person to have their ashes blasted into Earth's orbit was Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. His cremated remains were on board the NASA space shuttle Columbia — mission STS-52 — in 1992. There are now even private companies that offer "space burials" that launch your ashes into orbit.

14. LEGO

NASA teamed up with LEGO in 2011 to send three figurines to Jupiter aboard the Juno space probe. Yet these weren't just any ordinary LEGO figurines. The first LEGO was made to look like Galileo Galilei, who was the first to discover Jupiter's four largest moons. The others were fittingly modeled after the Roman gods Jupiter and Juno, the namesakes of the planet and the spacecraft, respectively.

15. Plaques

Along the surface of the Moon, several plaques can be found commemorating successful landings that have taken place. The one for Apollo 11 reads, in part, "We came in peace for all mankind." There's also one known as Fallen Astronaut, which serves to honor the 14 men who'd died in pursuit of advancing space exploration.

16. Harmonica and bells

Astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford played a prank on NASA during the Gemini 6A spaceflight. "We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit," claimed Schirra on December 16, 1965. Then he and Stafford began playing "Jingle Bells" on their smuggled-aboard harmonica and bells. They'd just seen Santa!

17. Amelia Earhart's watch

In 2009 astronaut Shannon Walker took a watch that once belonged to Amelia Earhart to space. At the time, Walker said she was "very excited and honored to fly the watch" and wanted to show "that by flying the watch people will become interested in the continuing story of women in aviation, and perhaps draw some new pilots to the field."

18. Le Brouère cheese

For reasons best known to himself, Elon Musk had a “secret payload” stashed away on the maiden flight of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. He told the press that the top-secret container was on the craft — but not what was inside of it. Musk only revealed the payload was a wheel of Le Brouère cheese after the Falcon 9's mission was a success.

19. Coca-Cola and Pepsi

Coca-Cola wanted to be the first fizzy soda in space — and in 1984 set about creating a can perfect for the job. NASA approved the can, and then Pepsi muscled in on the deal, too. So in 1985 a "Carbonated Beverage Dispenser Evaluation" took place during the STS 51-F mission. The results were inconclusive, though, and NASA scratched both products off of its approved-food list.

20. Salmonella

Both flights STS-115 in September 2006 and STS-123 in March 2008 took samples of salmonella into space. The idea was to see how bacteria would react to the conditions on board. And the result was that the salmonella that came back to Earth was three to seven times more contagious than the stuff found on Earth. Weird, huh?

21. A treadmill

NASA insists that the astronauts living on the International Space Station have to do exercise — which is why they launched a treadmill into space. The treadmill made its way to the ISS during mission STS-128 in August 2009 and was later installed in the Tranquility node. You may remember that the treadmill was named "COLBERT" after the late-night host Stephen Colbert urged his viewers to vote for this name in NASA's naming contest.

Experts on the case

Researchers were scanning the night sky when something shot across the darkness. The mystery object seemed to be passing through our galaxy, worryingly close to Earth. Luckily, one man was on the case. A couple of days after the object was first spotted, Paul Chodas set to work studying this enigmatic phenomenon. And if anyone could get to the bottom of it all, it would be Chodas. As the manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Chodas seriously knows his stuff.

Scientists were stumped

At this point, though, the exact identity of the object remained anybody’s guess. Was it an asteroid or a random lump of space junk? How about an alien spaceship from another galaxy? Okay, that third option was, to say the least, a bit of a stretch. But it couldn’t be discounted entirely. At this early stage, scientists had no ready explanation for this unusual vision in the night sky.

Wasn't acting like an asteroid

What was already emerging, however, was that the object was acting in ways not normally seen by your standard asteroid. That’s what Chodas noticed, anyway. Usually, an asteroid follows a path through space that is tilted in relation to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By contrast, this particular body was on the same plane as our planet’s path.

Slow moving

Another peculiarity was that 2020 SO, as the object came to be known, was not traveling through the heavens at the type of speed normally observed with asteroids. It was progressing at roughly 1,500mph – much more unhurried than usual. So, Chodas was finding it less and less likely that this was actually an asteroid. But if that was true, then what exactly was this strange visitor?

Something out of the ordinary

That speed – or lack of it – was a clincher, as close passes of the Earth by asteroids are not unusual. Asteroids, in case you need reminding, are lumps of rock that may have traveled through space for millions or even billions of years. In fact, they’re what remains of the formation of the Solar System – the Sun and the planets – around 4.6 billion years ago. That’s pretty neat to think about.

How many asteroids are in the solar system?

And according to NASA, there are more than one million asteroids in the Solar System. But don’t be fooled by that impressively high number. If you took all of these bits of space rock and melded them together, you’d end up with a mass that only comes in at less than half the size of our Moon.

Where to find them

Where are most asteroids found? Generally, in a region lying between the planets Mars and Jupiter. And it’s fortunate that this belt is so far away. Here, you see, you can find the asteroid Vesta, which is a whopping 329 miles around. Good job it isn’t any nearer to Earth! But with that said, most asteroids typically span only around 30 feet or so. And when one of them enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it usually burns up to become a meteor.

The threat of meteorites

But we should be more worried about meteorites, as they partially survive their descent through our atmosphere and strike the Earth. The best-known meteorite was the one that hit our planet roughly 66 million years ago, and the consequences of its impact ultimately led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies

So, although most meteors or meteorites are harmless, not all are. And that’s why the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies exists. You’ll remember that this agency’s boss, Chodas, was the man who recognized that 2020 OS did not seem like an ordinary asteroid. As you’ll recall, however, he wasn’t at all sure what it really was.

Raising the alarm

In any case, the organization Chodas heads has a very important mission. Staff at the agency keep an eye on the skies, and when they spot an asteroid they make an assessment of the object’s likely trajectory. Yep, if Earth is going to be struck by a dangerously large piece of space rock, it’s the Center for Near-Earth Objects Studies that will sound the warning.

Potential theories

But could there be another explanation for the object the Hawaiian researchers spotted? Well, yes. Simply put, it could be space junk. According to the U.K.’s Natural History Museum, thousands of pieces of space debris have been left to orbit around the planet since humans first started looking to the skies.

Trash traveling through space

Bits of launch rockets and even just fragments of paint are all traveling around in the atmosphere, along with what is said to be around 3,000 redundant satellites. And there are literally millions of smaller bits of trash traveling in circles, trapped by the planet’s gravitational pull.

Junk orbits forever

Generally speaking, abandoned or lost pieces of equipment that are left at lower altitudes soon burn up in the atmosphere as they’re pulled towards Earth. Pieces of junk at more than 22,000 miles above the planet’s surface, however, will remain in pointless orbit for centuries or even millennia. And, shockingly, new satellites could even collide with old, dead ones – although it’s roughly a one in 10,000 chance.

Collisions with satellites

Then, when India, the USA and China use these redundant satellites for missile target practice, another wrench is thrown into the works. You see, the resulting impact and explosion of one of these launches create thousands of bits of extra garbage. And while space junk might seem a fairly remote problem, it’s a real one. In 2020 alone, the International Space Station had to take evasive action on at least three occasions to avoid collisions with this detritus.

Ruled out aliens

Plus, as you may already have assumed, this mysterious object sadly wasn’t an alien spaceship. So, what exactly was it? Well, the evidence began to point in one rather surprising direction. Chodas had already ruled out an asteroid, of course, because of the way this mass was orbiting around the Sun and the Earth.

Tracking its path

Specifically, Chodas had discovered the unusual path 2020 SO was taking after using a computer simulation. But it was then that he had a bright idea. Why not try throwing the simulation into reverse in an attempt to work out the origin of the object? And as it happens, that’s just what he did.

Close call in 1966

In effect, Chodas was making 2020 SO travel back through time – and the results were startling. You see, this backward simulation showed that the object had been quite close to Earth back in 1966. In fact, as the scientist told The New York Times in December 2020, 2020 SO was “close enough that it could have originated from the Earth.”

Expert hunch

With this incredible news in his back pocket, Chodas quickly went public. He emailed colleagues around the world with a message describing the hunch generated by his backward simulation. The gist of this theory? He believed the mystery object could actually once have been part of the NASA space vehicle Surveyor 2. And that seemed a real possibility, as the Surveyor 2 mission had gone spectacularly wrong.

NASA's Surveyor missions

This doomed launch had actually been part of NASA’s Surveyor series, with the first blast-off from Cape Canaveral being in May 1966. And the program had gotten off to a good start. Powered by an Atlas-Centaur rocket, the Surveyor 1 spacecraft made the first ever successful soft landing on the surface of the Moon. The purpose of the Surveyor missions was to scout out conditions on the Moon for the manned Apollo missions that would follow.

Second launch

So, as Surveyor 1 had done its job well, NASA was apparently optimistic about its second Surveyor mission, which launched in September 1966. Like its predecessor – which had transmitted 11,000 images back to Earth – Surveyor 2 was tasked with beaming back photographs of the lunar terrain.

Anticipated to be a success

Mike Dinn had been the deputy director of the monitoring station in Tidbinbilla, Australia, that had tracked Surveyor 2 as it sped towards the Moon. And when speaking to The New York Times in December 2020, he recalled the positive mood that had surrounded that 1966 launch. Dinn claimed, “We fully expected Surveyor 2 to be a complete success.”

Something went wrong

It’s true that Surveyor 2’s launch went smoothly. Like Surveyor 1, the one-ton spacecraft was blasted into space en route to an area of the Moon called Sinus Medii. But at a critical moment in the flight, something went very wrong with one of Surveyor 2’s three booster engines.

Failed thruster

NASA’s plan was that the three thrusters would all fire for just under ten seconds during the journey to the Moon. This would correct the course of Surveyor 2, ensuring that it would land at the chosen destination. But while two of the jets ignited as planned, one remained dead. And, unfortunately, this failure pushed the ship into an uncontrolled tailspin.

Lost contact

Desperately trying to correct the malfunction, ground control at the mission center tried to fire up the uncooperative rocket again and again. But it was all to no avail. The spacecraft lost communication with Earth and began to freefall towards the Moon’s surface. A NASA press release just after the event described what had happened next.

Crashed on the moon

The somber message revealed, “For more than 24 hours, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory attempted to correct an out-of-control tumbling condition which began during the midcourse trajectory correction [of Surveyor 2]... Early today, it also was apparent that the major objectives of the mission could not be met.” Ultimately, the stricken spacecraft crashed into the Moon’s surface, near the crater Copernicus.

Successful moon landing

Still, this catastrophe didn’t stop NASA from continuing with the Surveyor program. And, fortunately, of the seven launches, five all passed off without major incident. It all culminated in the Apollo 11 mission, which landed men on the Moon in 1969. This truly history-making feat was partly enabled by the information that the Surveyor spacecraft had previously collected.

Proving the object's surveyor connection

Overall, the Surveyor program had proved more than worthwhile. But that didn’t help Chodas. Even though he had an inkling that the mysterious object had been part of the Surveyor 2 rocket, he needed to make sure once and for all. Detailed analysis of 2020 SO was the next step.

The world's scientific community tried to ID it

Scientists around the world then began to work on studying this strange flying mass, hoping to get a positive ID. Of course, that was no easy task. We’re talking about something that was only about 25 feet long, after all. It also didn’t help that it was floating through space many thousands of miles from Earth.

Clueing together its composition

But there was confirmation of sorts that 2020 SO was not a naturally formed asteroid. Researchers in Arizona and Spain confirmed that radiation from the Sun was subtly altering the object’s path, which would be extremely unlikely if the mass was a piece of solid rock. If it was a hollow piece of metal, on the other hand? That phenomenon would be entirely expected.

Pinpointing the rocket

So, it was looking increasingly likely that 2020 SO was not an asteroid or even an alien spaceship but the remains of a booster rocket. And Chodas suggested that it could be the Centaur rocket section from Surveyor 2. That had been jettisoned soon after the spacecraft had launched from Earth.

Lost in space... and found

After separating from Surveyor 2, the Centaur booster had traveled on through space, past the Moon and – as far as anyone knew – onwards into oblivion. But if this piece of space debris was the Centaur, it had clearly started to orbit around the Sun in a full circle that also brought it close to Earth.

Technology confirmed what its made of

Fortunately, state-of-the-art technology was able to help confirm that 2020 SO was comprised of metal rather than rock. Vishnu Reddy, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, led the team that analyzed the data captured by an infrared telescope in Maunakea, Hawaii.

Looking at it in color

Quoted on the NASA website, Reddy said of the results, “Due to extreme faintness of this object following [the] Center for Near-Earth Object Studies prediction, it was a challenging object to characterize. We got color observations with the Large Binocular Telescope or LBT that suggested 2020 SO was not an asteroid.” But his work went further than that.

Painstaking research

Next, Reddy and his colleagues compared the infrared signature of 2020 SO with that of 301 steel – the material used in Centaur rockets. But while the match was close, the team had to be even more precise if they wanted to make a definite identification. So, they went onto the next stage of the painstaking research, which involved more infrared signal comparisons.

Compared it to other orbiting rockets

Reddy explained this further step, saying, “We knew that if we wanted to compare apples to apples, we’d need to try to get spectral data from another Centaur rocket booster that had been in Earth orbit for many years to then see if it better matched 2020 SO’s spectrum.” But this, too, would be no simple task.

Getting data was extremely difficult

“Because of the extreme speed at which Earth-orbiting Centaur boosters travel across the sky,” Reddy continued, “we knew it would be extremely difficult to lock on with the Infrared Telescope Facility long enough to get a solid and reliable data set.” But the scientists were determined to do just that. And early in December 2020, they succeeded.

How they stacked up

The researchers focused on observing what they knew to be the remnants of a Centaur booster rocket from 1971. They kept this piece of space junk in their sights long enough to get sufficient data, as that way they could compare this information with what they already had about 2020 SO. And the result of the analysis of the two sets of data? A match.

Case closed

Yep, what had started out as a mere hunch was now accepted as fact. This piece of space junk definitely was not an asteroid. Nor was it a spaceship from another galaxy – even if UFO hunters may have wanted it to be. Instead, it was indeed the Centaur booster rocket that had formed a key part of the sadly unsuccessful Surveyor 2 mission.

Where its headed

Sometime around the spring of 2021, the Centaur booster will pass beyond our planet and head off on its orbit around the Sun. And it won’t be the last time that this memorial to the failed NASA launch returns. The dead thruster is slated to head again towards Earth sooner than you may think, in fact. Chodas told The New York Times, “In 2036, it’s coming back.”