NASA have revealed the bizarre reason their teams always have peanuts on hand for every space mission.
Astronauts and their often bizarre pre-launch traditions go hand in hand.
These traditions date all the way back to Yuri Gagarin, the first person in history to make it to outer space in 1961. Then, Gagarin made the unusual decision to stop the bus on the way to launch and pee on the back right wheel.
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To this day, no one is quite sure why this started. Yet, ever since, every astronaut expected to take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport, based in Kazakhstan, stops the bus and follows suit.
It should come as no surprise then, that those at NASA also have their own host of traditions.
As reported by The Space Review, NASA astronauts do everything from, having a breakfast of scrambled eggs and steak on launch day, to sitting in the same E-Z Boy recliners in the ‘suiting room’. The exact same recliners used since the days of the Apollo program.
One of the most famous long-standing NASA traditions, however, involves the use of ‘lucky peanuts.’
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No, not Charles M. Schulz’s beloved comic strip. (Although NASA has actually collaborated with Peanuts Worldwide to provide Snoopy-based educational STEM-focused classroom activities.)
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) traditionally eats ‘lucky peanuts’ before launches and major space missions. The practice dates back to the era of the in-famous space race, and the United States' effort to first land on the moon.
Back then, in the swinging 1960s, the ‘Ranger project’ was created. The Ranger program consisted of nine automated spacecrafts. These spacecrafts were created with the intention of getting a first up-close look at the Moon’s lunar surface.
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Created by JPL, the ranger vehicles would approach the moon's surface, and crash, all the while taking and relying back images and data.
Of the nine in total Ranger vehicles, the first six attempts didn’t go too smoothly. Ranger 1 through 6 were marked as being “unsuccessful” with some losing radio contact, missing the moon entirely or having their cameras fail despite reaching their destination.
It wasn’t until Ranger 7, that the mission saw some success, and that success is where peanuts come into the picture.
According to the NASA website, peanuts were passed out on July 28, 1964, Ranger 7’s launch day. Mission trajectory engineer, Dick Wallace, handed them out in hopes of settling his co-workers nerves, after the series of unsuccessful Ranger missions.
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As it turned out, Ranger 7 succeeded and sent back 4,316 images before crashing into the Moon as expected. Not only was this a win for NASA, but it marked a huge turning point in the run-up, and success, of the moon landing in 1969.
Ever since, peanuts are now handed around the JPL laboratory’s mission control before big, important missions.
However, there have been some cases where they’ve been forgotten about. The ‘lucky peanuts’ weren’t handed out during the initial launch of the Cassini, back on October 13th, 1997. As a result, weather conditions postponed the launch, but peanuts were subsequently given out during its later successful liftoff.
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It’s all superstition. However, when dealing with incredibly complicated and intense scientific missions, which are treading new ground every day, any reassurance on NASA staff can only be a good thing.