Word.ws English Dictionary

spam in a can

spam in a can noun: astronauts whose mission involves confinement in a small space capsule.

Noun

spam in a can (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory, slang) Astronauts whose mission involves confinement in a small space capsule.
    • The lab rat, experimental object, “Spam in a can” idea wasn't NASA's vision of the astronaut, but this unpleasant dimension of astronaut life did seep into spaces with a claim to public attention.1998, Jodi Dean, Aliens in America, page 78
    • Many of the 324 candidates […] were convinced that astronauts were going to be “spam in a can,” mere passengers in a capsule controlled by NASA technicians on the ground.2011, G. Scott Thomas, A New World to be Won, page 26

Origin of spam in a can

In reference to the tinned meat product called SPAM.

Questions about spam in a can

What does spam in a can mean?
Spam in a can means astronauts whose mission involves confinement in a small space capsule.
What part of speech is spam in a can?
Spam in a can is a noun.

Words near spam in a can in the dictionary

  1. spaltings
  2. spalts
  3. spam
  4. spam account
  5. spam accounts
  6. spam in a can
  7. spam killer
  8. spam killers
  9. spam musubi
  10. spam musubis
  11. spam relay

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spam in a can (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “spam in a can.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spam_in_a_can. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.