Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 12-31-2014 02:00 PM               

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OK space fans, I have a question for you. It is my intention to publish some of your responses (without your names).

The time is early 1990 and NASA just called to offer you a seat on a shuttle mission as a payload specialist passenger (as Mike Mullane calls them). The scheduled launch date is late 1990. The only requirements are that you pass basic physical and psychological examinations, plus spend 2 months training with the crew about 3 months prior to the scheduled launch date.

If you would have been too young or old in 1990 to fly with NASA, then pretend you were the right age.

What would be your response to NASA? Please keep your responses to 10 words or less (and please give me responses that you would be happy to have your mother read).

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From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

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From: Texas * Earth
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From: Titusville, FL USA
Registered: Feb 2005

posted 12-31-2014 04:25 PM               

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Only if I design the patch.

But probably more like Howard Wolowitz than I care to admit.

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From: Birmingham AL
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Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 12-31-2014 05:06 PM               

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10 words or less: Who wouldn't say yes and why?

I remember when Goldin was giving the odds of getting killed in the shuttle. Don't remember the exact numbers (and they were way off in retrospect of Columbia and the end of the program) but he started off with the odds of dying in a commercial aircraft... the progressing to dying in a combat aircraft... then the shuttle.

I'm not foolhardy, but even then I remember thinking, "Yeah, I'd still like to go." I'm a believer in that you always try and take advantage of an opportunity that presents itself, because you never know if it'll happen again (or if one recognizes a second chance and fails to act on it.)

Besides, 1990 is when I graduated college. If I had flown on the shuttle at that time, even as a PS, who knows how much different my life would have been, and how I could have parlayed that experience - I would have probably been among the first advocates in the then-new field of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, having been accepted into a 100-level college STEM course in my junior level of high school....

Posts: 384
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Aug 2012

posted 12-31-2014 07:29 PM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by MCroft04:
What would be your response to NASA?

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Early 1990? Perfect timing — single, in excellent physical shape (back then, anyway) and finishing a degree, my response would have been:

See you at breakfast, and plan pilot training for SECOND mission.

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From: Smithfield, Me, USA
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From: Vilano Beach, FL, USA
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From: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Apr 2008

posted 01-01-2015 08:25 AM               

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I think I know where you are going with this Mel so I will disqualify my answer. But...

The year being 1990 four years after Challenger, my answer to Dan Brandenstein would have been 'Yes... but between you, me did you really fix those solid boosters?"

Even those that jumped at the chance, the thought must have been in the back of their minds somewhere regarding. Even those that accepted the offer.

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