Get this: You’re a member of the Space Shuttle Discovery, the first since the disastrous Columbia mission. Your launch is scrapped several times to ensure absolutely nothing goes wrong. You take off amid much anxiety and dock at the International Space Station only to hear NASA is grounding the rest of the shuttle fleet – except for you, you’re OK, carry on.
The space agency announced yesterday it’s grounding future flights after a large piece of insulating foam had broken off Discovery’s external fuel tank shortly after liftoff.
“Until we fix this [insulating foam issue], we’re not ready to go fly again,” William Parsons, the manager of the shuttle program, said at a press conference yesterday. OK, Bill, but what about the guys you have up at the Space Station? Nice timing.
If we were a Discovery crew member, our first call upon hearing said news would be to Houston: “Get me the hell down from here!”
Of course, that’s why we’re not astronaut material.
