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Forum:	Free Space
Topic:	THIS close ...

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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="arial, helvetica">T O P I C     R E V I E W</font></CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="arial, helvetica">Rick</FONT></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="arial, helvetica">This is a story I'll be telling for years to come ... <P>In setting up Dick Gordon's appearance at Phoenix International Raceway, I contacted NASA to get footage of his spaceflights for our licensed show, "Totally NASCAR". Through that process, a VIP tour of Kennedy Space Center was also set up for Ashton Lewis, one of the NASCAR Busch Series drivers I work with. This was the full deal ... a tour that began with Ashton and a photographer spending nearly an hour inside the Space Shuttle Atlantis in the OPF. <P>I wasn't scheduled to get to go inside ... I'm just a PR guy ... but I did get to stick my head in the hatch and see the toilet. As I talked with one of the NASA administrators who was serving as a guide, we exchanged what seemed like life stories. He expressed an interest in racing, and when I invited him to the weekend's race in Homestead, he accepted. <P>Then ... then he asks, "Would you like to go inside the shuttle as well?" <P>Well ... duh. What kind of moron do you think I am? I was thinking it, but I didn't say it. I couldn't get the change and junk out of my pockets fast enough. He had a tech call and get me a bunny suit ... and I was pumped. I was going to go inside Atlantis. I was going to get my picture taken inside Atlantis. I was going to ... I was going to ... I was going to ...<P>And then I heard somebody knocking on the white room window. It was the bay leader, saying we had to leave, that they had work to do. To sum it up, I didn't get to go inside Atlantis, other than to stick my head in the hatch. On the outside, I tried valiantly to be professional ... "That's OK. I understand." On the inside, though, I was cussing that bay leader for all he was worth. I told him later he was now my mortal enemy.<P>Meanwhile, Ashton got to sit in the commander's seat on the flight deck and the photographer in the pilot's. I hate them both.<P>We also visited one of the launch pads, and went up to the 195-foot level where they put the astronauts on board the Space Shuttle that I didn't get to go inside. We went inside the VAB, visited the engine room, visited launch control and went inside and under the crawler.<P>But I was THIS close to getting inside Atlantis.</FONT></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#333333"><TD valign=top><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="arial, helvetica">ejectr</FONT></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="arial, helvetica">That bay leader sounds like the sadist's sadist.</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE></td></tr></table>

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