You probably don't expect the words “poop” and “Apollo 10”.
To have anything to do with each other.
But somehow, they do.
It was May 1969, and three astronauts were on their way back.
From the Moon.
Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan had just spent days.
Doing some of the most important work, NASA had ever attempted.
Apollo was basically the final test.
Before the actual Moon landing.
Everything was going pretty well.
Until a piece of poop started floating around, inside the spacecraft.
And yes, NASA actually recorded the conversation.
The problem was pretty simple.
Apollo didn't have a toilet.
When the astronauts needed to go.
They had to use these special bags, that were basically stuck to their bodies.
Not exactly the kind of bathroom experience you'd want.
And apparently, sometimes things went wrong.
So one of them is floating around the cabin.
Stafford notices it.
And immediately, there's basically a question nobody wants to answer: “Who did that?” John Young says it wasn't him.
Cernan isn't claiming it either.
And then things get even more ridiculous.
Because a few minutes later… another one shows up.
Cernan actually says: “Here's another goddam turd.” Now imagine being in that spacecraft.
You're thousands of miles from Earth.
You're flying around the Moon.
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Apollo 10 command module Charlie Br
Hook poop and Apollo 10 Apollo 104.81s
Apollo fecal waste collection bag N6.48s
Apollo astronaut fecal bag training4.73s
Thomas Stafford Apollo 10 command m6.18s
John Young astronaut inside Apollo4.07s
John Young Eugene Cernan Apollo 10
dedup7e2 seg0033 Eugene Cernan Apollo astronaut6.67s
Thomas Stafford John Young Eugene Cern7.46s
Eugene Cernan Earth seen from Apoll