Coca-Cola and Pepsi are actually two of the more normal things that have been dragged up into space during a NASA mission. Over the decades since their first successful launch they've taken all sorts of weird stuff up there, and for various reasons. Apparently these dorky astronaut types are all closet jocks, since multiple pieces of sports memorabilia have followed them up into the cosmos: the New York Mets home plate was taken on the Space Shuttle Atlantis's final flight to the Hubble Telescope, because the team were moving stadiums; multiple shirts and jerseys have been taken, including a bunch of signed NFL tops and one of Lane Armstrong's sweaty yellow one-pieces; plus a bunch of NASCAR starter flags and some dirt from Yankee Stadium (followed by astronaut and baseball fan Garrett Reisman "throwing" the first pitch from space, via videolink). On the other side of the coin are the totally nerdy crap that's more predictably ended up in the possession of NASA astronauts when they head on up to explore the Solar System first hand. To get the public - and kids particularly - interested in space travel again, they took up a Buzz Lightyear toy to the International Space Station in 2008, during which time he starred in educational videos. There wasn't any such purpose to taking up a prop lightsaber that Mark Hamill actually used in Star Wars, besides publicity for the film's 30th anniversary, but possibly the strangest cargo ever brought in a space shuttle were the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry - delivered in a tiny canister into outer space, where it orbited the Earth 160 times before being returned to the shuttle.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
