1New Horizons spacecraft
When NASA's New Horizons spacecraft passed by Pluto, the trip took about 1 minute less than predicted or in a decade-long journey, i.e., NASA's forecast was 99.99998% accurate. That’s the equivalent of forecasting a trip from New York to Boston and being accurate to within four-millionths of a second.
2Jingle Bells
On December 16, 1965, NASA received a transmission from two astronauts: “We have an object, probably in polar orbit... I see a command Module and … and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit.” They transmission then started playing, “Jingle Bells.” The astronauts had just played a Christmas prank on ground control.
3Voyager parts
Right before launching the two Voyagers, NASA scientists used kitchen-grade aluminum foil to cover critical parts of the probes to protect it from unanticipated radiation at Jupiter. It worked.
4Peace Lilies
In the late 80s, NASA studied house plants as a means of providing cleaner and purer air for their space stations. They found Peace Lilies and Chrysanthemums to be the best all-rounders at air filtering.
5NASA movie poster
NASA makes a movie poster every time they send an expedition to the international space station. Some of the themes are The Matrix, Star Wars, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
6WTC tribute
NASA recovered metal from the World Trade Center and used it on Martian rovers as a tribute to those fallen on the 9/11 attacks.
7The Eagleworks Advanced Propulsion Laboratory
There is a group in NASA that is legitimately researching warp drive technology called The Eagleworks Advanced Propulsion Laboratory whose purpose is to explore advanced and theoretical propulsion technologies that are intended to allow human exploration of the Galaxy within 100 years.
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8Moon trees
NASA gave away hundreds of trees that have been to the moon. They never kept track of who they gave them to. Now they are trying to find them. One was at the White House.
9Einstein's theory of gravity
NASA's 50-year project to research gravity and prove Einstein's theory of gravity was nearly abandoned after its research probe's instruments were off. It was saved by the donations of Turki Al Saud, a Saudi Prince who holds a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics.
10Space jellyfish
In the early 1990s, NASA sent jellyfish to space to test how spaceflight would affect their development. The jellies did not develop the proper gravity-sensing capabilities and had trouble figuring how to swim around in normal gravity, with abnormal pulsing and movement when returned to Earth.
