After Wednesday's historic first flight of the Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk declined to identify a secret, humorous payload flown in the capsule. He said it was something Monty Python fans would appreciate, but he didn't want to reveal it until the next news cycle for fear of the headlines that would result.
Some speculated it would be Spam, a tribute to astronauts as "spam in a can" and the comedy troupe's "Spamalot" musical.Today, SpaceX lifted the lid on the "top secret" payload to reveal...a wheel of cheese.
Click here to watch the Cheese Shop sketch on which the gag is based.
Image credits: SpaceX.
39 comments:
Blessed are the cheese makers.
cheesssseee innn sppaacceeeeee !!
Hal, cut the cheese please ... I'm sorry, I can't do that
Spam would have been funny too. Or this:http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/craveonline.com/upl_images/Legendary-Black-Beast-of-AR.jpg
Hahaaaa ... that's too funny ... Cheese in Space ... YES ... Spam would have been great
Geeks....
Geesh, just think of how many reviews, meetings, and Power Point presentations that cheese would have had to go through prior to flight if this was a NASA cheese flight!!
bkhuna - In my book, that was the best response ever on any FT blog, definitely made me smile.
I wonder if big nose was up there also though?
now wheel know just whom is the big cheese at the CrAPE
Hahaha...
God I love Space X.
Cheese wheel...Hahahahahahah
SpaceX is a joke and a waste of time and money!!!!
SpaceX is awesome!!!!! This is turning out to be a great time for US spaceflight!!
Anon 8:48...keep telling yourself that. SpaceX is what NASA was 50 years ago...
Very reminiscent of the tasty, top secret corned beef sandwiches (on rye) John Young and Gus Grissom took into Earth orbit aboard their "Molly Brown" capsule during NASA's first two-man Gemini mission (GT-3) FORTY-FIVE years ago. Then again, when you're reinventing the wheel, you've got to expect lots of deja vu...
Anon 8:57... Who the hell wants to go back 50 years?
yep, the future of our space program is rat food
I want to go back 50 years if it means doing things efficiently and not being risk-adverse to the point of analysis paralysis.
Great sense of humor these guys Space X.
I like em.
I love Monty Python Too.
You can't argue with Cheese.
Go Space-X!
Space-X sux
"No crackers, Gromit! We've forgotten the crackers!"
Dear Anonymous 7:07 - Sorry, but I don't think they said anything about Blessed are the Big Noses.
Sounds like the same idiotic spaceloads that were the reasons the shuttle missions got nixed-ROI was little to none.
Too bad nobody was there to cut the cheese in space! :P
I found it odd that some of the networks covering this story had no clue that the "Cow" on the cover was from the movie "Top Secret" They just say a picture of a cow with boots on. What a bunch of morons. One of the funniest movies and a cult classic.
MARS NEEDS CHEESE! (And crackers...don't forget crackers...those round ones, ok? NOT saltines!)
Quote:
"SpaceX is a joke and a waste of time and money!!!!"
Really?
1) It's not wasting tax payer money as NASA was/is.
2) How many years does it take NASA to come up with new flight hardware? (non-manned) How long has Space been in business?
NASA has done some great things in manned space flight, but that stopped after Apollo.
It might be too late for the USA, but I'm sure some 3rd world country will take over space flight to the moon, mars and beyond before the US sets a 10 year planning mission to discuss what they may or may not think we should do or not do.
That would have went well with John Young's and Gus Grissom's shared roastbeef sandwich on the Molly Brown. Of course they smuggled the sandwich aboard but it's still nice to see some playful antics again on a spacecraft.
Anon @6:39: What makes you think it didn't?
Anon @9:30: You really thing the Shuttle wasn't a "great thing in manned space flight?" The biggest problem with NASA is the "what have you done for me in the last 10 minutes, and can you make it simple so I can understand" attitude of the American public.
NASA has been launching Cheese Balls into space for a long time.
bikerchick: IMHO the shuttle is not the greatest thing in manned space flight. Putting a human on the moon IS the greatest manned program.
Sure the shuttle is impressive, but at 1/2 billion a launch it's not cost effective. Too many compromises where made in it's design.
Opps, typo in my last message:
"on the moon WAS the greatest..."
As an englishman i would like to say,that's a GREAT TRIBUTE to the pythons.Thank you space X,you apreciate good english humour.!!! Well done.
and now we have the whine..did you notice it was a success??
Putting people in space is easy. Doing it at a cost that makes it practical for something other than a political demonstration is the hard part. The Falcon was launched with less than one tenth the man-hours needed for the Ares.
"Well, do you have any La Brouere?" "Sorry, just launched the last of it into orbit."
If NASA had launched a wheel of cheese into space in a canister decorated with a movie logo, all anyone would do is cry about the waste of tax dollars, even if that was just one small part of an otherwise vital payload.
2:05PM, I believe NASA has launched concrete on several occasions to simulate payload. Cheese or concrete? Which is "better"?
"Blessed are the cheese makers."
Actually I believe you are referring to any manufacturer of processed dairy products.
I think its great! After all private contractors built every shuttle and rocket ever launched. Now NASA thinks it can protect its civil servants jobs which are over paid by getting rid of the very contractors that made it happen! I think NASA and its mouthpiece Chucky Bolden should let go of 1/2 of the civil servants and that would give more than enough to keep the contractors going and building and saving Kennedy like they should!
Opps, typo in my last message: "on the moon WAS the greatest..."
Apollo served a clear political purpose, to divert the US-Soviet conflict away from a perilous nuclear arms race that could have destroyed the world. But that purpose was achieved with the return of Apollo 11 and public support collapsed soon afterward. If we go back to the moon, it must be with fully reusable systems. Constellation returned nostalgically to ocean recovery. Musk knows it's too expensive and is planning tosoft-land the capsule on land before man-rating it, and to recover the booster.
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