30 Out of This World Facts About Astronauts That’ll Fill You With Awe

When the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon in 1969, they left behind a white pouch containing a silicon disc slightly bigger than a silver dollar. Inscribed in the microscopic font on the disc are 73 messages, each from a different country, expressing wishes of goodwill and peace.

Astronaut Wally Schirra would take pictures of his frozen pee as it floated through space, glinting with sunlight. The pee-flakes looked like a beautiful starfield, he said. One astronomer saw a photo and asked what constellation it was, and Schirra said "Jocelyn, that's the constellation Urion."

During the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, to help USA/USSR relations, astronauts and cosmonauts played smuggled audio recordings of glasses clinking, laughter, and many female voices. Houston radioed to ask what’s going on. "Oh nothing,” they said. “We finished work, just having a party up here."

Astronaut John Young got really bad flatulence from drinking orange juice during the Apollo 16 mission to the moon. Unknowingly, he broadcast this fact to the world. "I have the farts again. I got them again, Charlie."

Astronauts lose as much as 22% of their blood while in space, as a reaction to the uniform blood pressure caused by microgravity. Until their body replaces this blood, many returning astronauts can't stand for more than a few minutes without fainting.

An astronaut named Takao Doi threw a boomerang while in a space station and it returned to him. As long as there is air to provide the necessary forces, a boomerang will return to its thrower, even in the weightlessness of Earth's orbit.

In 2009, Russian Cosmonauts on the International Space Station were banned by their officials from using the ‘luxurious’ U.S. model Astro-loo toilet and were only allowed to use the Russian-built toilet.

According to official guidelines, if an astronaut is dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space, the astronaut’s crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary.

An astronaut named John Young smuggled a corned-beef sandwich into space. After taking a bite, crumbs and rye started floating around the cabin. It has been referred to as '$30 million sandwich.' NASA has taken steps to prevent corned-beef sandwiches from being taken on future flights.

Astronauts often lose their fingernails after conducting spacewalks. Their nails just fall off in their space suits.