The Weirdest Things Launched Into Space, From Buzz Lightyear To A KFC Sandwich

A diagram of the human sex organs, an audio recording of a mother kissing her child — and soon — a chicken sandwich. Several strange things have been launched into outer space since humans first broke the bonds of Earth’s gravity and began exploring the universe.

Fast food restaurant KFC is preparing to send a spicy fried chicken sandwich called the Zinger, which is new to the U.S., aboard a balloon that will carry it to a point above Earth that’s high enough to see the planet’s curvature as well as outer space, the New York Times reported. Technically it will still be within Earth’s atmosphere, but the sandwich will be about as close to becoming a space traveler as fried chicken can get. It’s a flight demonstration for company World View Enterprises, which plans to carry humans aboard their high-tech balloons.

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KFC said the Zinger is expected to travel 60,000 to 80,000 feet above the planet’s surface — a place in the stratosphere considered “near space” — for four days. As pointed out on its website, that does not technically qualify as outer space. “We’re launching a chicken sandwich 19 miles into the air in a robotic bucket satellite. What more do you want from us?”

“The stratosphere’s near-vacuum conditions and below-freezing temperatures (-80 °F) are actually quite optimal for preserving food,” KFC said. “But just like astronauts need protective covering in space, so does the Zinger. Therefore, the space-bound Zinger’s sesame seed bun and hand-breaded chicken fillet will be treated with polyurethane and the lettuce with Freshin to help preserve the aesthetic of the Zinger.”

The fast food chain plans to take video of the chicken sandwich in space to stream to viewers.

Whether the preserved sandwich takes the crown of weirdest object people have launched into the great beyond is a matter of opinion, but it has plenty of competition.

In a space version of a sailor’s burial at sea, hundreds of dead people have been cremated and had their ashes blasted into space. CBS News reported that list includes Mercury Seven astronaut Gordon Cooper, James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, and a NASA engineer named Bob Shrake. That trio was sent up five years ago on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and then their ashes were jettisoned in a container that orbited for a period before burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. Other big names to have orbited their remains include Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991.

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Another odd thing to go into space was Buzz — not Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon in the Apollo 11 mission, but Buzz Lightyear, the Star Command space ranger. An action figure of Buzz Lightyear, a beloved character from the Disney movie "Toy Story" voiced by Tim Allen, has also logged some space-time. NASA was working on an educational effort with Disney at the time and, as his best friend Woody waved goodbye, astronauts took Buzz along on the space shuttle Discovery and then onto the International Space Station. The toy spent 467 days in space, setting a record for the longest stay in Earth’s orbit.

Buzz Lightyear hasn’t been the only space-faring toy: Lego figurines have also visited space. Astronauts have carried payloads with different cultural representations, like images, and famous music and art including a depiction of a penis by Andy Warhol, the Telegraph reported. The cargo has also had scientific value, such as pieces of a duck-billed dinosaur and sperm from a sea urchin.

Other weird objects have included historical artifacts, coins and a lightsaber that Mark Hamill used while playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movie "Return of the Jedi."