From Planet 51:
I never had the right stuff.
I'm a button pusher, Spam in a can.
I don't even fly the ship. It's all automatic.
I only got this far on charm and my rugged good looks.
Is "spam in a can" an idiom? Is it just for space and astronauts etc. or is it a common expression? And what's the exact meaning of it?
Best Answer
It's what the test pilots of the time called the original American Mercury astronauts, because the astronauts were not really "flying" the craft due to lack of control surfaces or (in the beginning) even windows. "Spam in a can" is heard in the movie version of Tom Wolfe's non-fiction book, The Right Stuff.
"Spam in a can" is a metaphor evoking the image of the astronauts as nothing but meat in a metal enclosure.