Hilarious audio from NASA's Apollo 10 mission reveals moment they discovered a 'floating turd'
Astronauts train for every possible situation before heading out into space, but perhaps the one thing they don't prepare for is the possibility of a floating turd.
NASA's Apollo 10 mission is historic in many ways, being just the second human spaceflight to orbit the Moon, and the predecessor to Apollo 11 which managed to do what the space agency has struggled to do since.
Nowadays astronauts are conditioned to survive for months and even years in space, but spending all that time floating around you do start to wonder how exactly they perform the basic functions of daily life.
From brushing your teeth to having a shower, the zero gravity conditions of space can make otherwise menial tasks near impossible, but one thing that we all have to do on the regular left Apollo 10 astronauts in a hilarious situation.
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Known as the 'turd incident', the astronauts were faced with a situation where someone's floating excrement was spotted around the aircraft, and the released audio shows the situation in its hilarity.
Thomas P. Stafford opens the exchange asking his fellow astronauts the simple question of "who did it?"
He then goes on to request a napkin quickly, revealing: "There's a turd floating through the air."
With a crew size of just three astronauts it shouldn't be too hard to narrow down the culprit, but all three vehemently deny ownership. Stafford even goes so far to lovingly reveal that it can't be one of his because "mine was a little more sticky than that."
They never quite figured out the culprit, with the three astronauts equally culpable and innocent to the 'crime'.
Of course, social media has had plenty of fun with the absurd situation, with users in YouTube comments and on Reddit coming up with a number of poo-adjacent puns.
"Close encounter of the turd kind" says one comment - and perhaps this was our first contact with aliens, but instead of sending a message they sent their toilet remains.
Another remarks that "no one's gonna admit to dropping a deuce in space," and while that is very true, it becomes a lot more awkward when the only possible people who could have done it are staring you in the face!
Some even have their own conspiracies, as someone argues: "I'm the only Reddit user who thinks this is a joke. As in - there is no real turd. They are f****** with NASA."
While that's not quite as extravagant as thinking the moon landing is fake, it would be quite the bold move from the Apollo 10 astronauts to make up a floating turd.