SpaceX Reveals Dragon's "Secret" Payload

By Nancy Atkinson - December 9, 2010 at 12:29 PM UTC | Space Exploration
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During Wednesday's post-flight press conference, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed the rumor of a secret payload on board the Dragon spacecraft, but said he wouldn't reveal what it actually was until Thursday. He did say, however that if you liked Monty Python, you would like this payload.

True to his word, SpaceX just issued a press release on what was inside this container, above, that was bolted to the floor of the Dragon spacecraft.

See below.

[caption id="attachment_81588" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Top Secret payload revealed. Photo Credit: Chris Thompson, SpaceX"]

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It was a wheel of cheese, which references a classic skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus, where actor John Cleese tries to order

cheese from a cheese shop that has no cheese.

A skit about cheese doesn't sound funny, but it is. 42 different kinds of cheese are mentioned in the skit; the kind on board Dragon was Le Brouere cheese.

Many fellow journalists speculating on Twitter agreed that the secret payload was likely a can of Spam -- which would reference both Monty Python's hit "Spamalot" as well as pilot Chuck Yeager's admonition that early astronauts were just like "Spam in a can."

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com