This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed human.

Welcome to Brain Stuff, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hey, Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

On any successful space mission, the crew's morale is at the top of the list of priorities.

After all, the final frontier can be one high-stress workplace,

so it's no wonder that NASA has seen a small army of passionate pranksters over the years.

We're not talking about anything too wild, of course.

That could get dangerous, because space is

absolutely willing and able to kill you. Still, these serious and seriously well-trained crew

people need to blow off steam as much as any of us, perhaps even more so, because not all of

us have jobs that involve being launched out of Earth's atmosphere at 17,500

miles an hour. That's 28,000 kilometers per hour, which is fast either way. So, in no particular

order today, here are a few of our favorite NASA pranks. Let's start off with the tail of the disappearing, reappearing cockroach.

Okay, back in November of 1969, a six-legged squatter caused a bit of unrest in the days leading

up to NASA's Apollo 12 mission.

Following a test run at the Kennedy Space Center, a cockroach was seen hiding out in the command

module that was to function as the crew's living space.

It would also deliver them back to Earth after re-entering the atmosphere.

Not wanting any insect stowaways on the vessel, the launch director used all sorts of tricks

to try to capture the intruder.

But to the amusement of many, his quarry alluded him.

...