008 | Astronauts as Answering Machines
It’s always fun getting to play silly tricks on fellow teammates. Sometimes they get a laugh out of everyone, and sometimes they cause a company phone line to be overloaded with phone calls!
In this episode, I share the story of how my co-astronaut, Sally Ride, decided to play a bit of a joke on mission control during our wake-up call. I share what happened when the joke caused people to call into a mission control landline and eventually crashed it.
I also explain how I helped Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space, to have some fun and show a bit of Canadian pride.
“I'm a rookie. I'm not playing jokes like that anytime soon. Lest it cost me the opportunity to fly again.”
- Kathy Sullivan
“We learned later that the phone lines in mission control crashed completely within about two minutes of his doing that as people raced to call in and see if they could actually talk to John or maybe even get patched through and talk to the space shuttle.”
- Kathy Sullivan
This week on Kathy Sullivan Explores:
● The wake-up routine during a mission in space
● A prank game between astronauts and mission control
● How a mission control landline crashed
● How I helped the first Canadian in space, Marc Garneau, share some Canadian pride
Spaceship Not Required
I’m Kathy Sullivan, the only person to have walked in space and gone to the deepest point in the ocean.
I’m an explorer, and that doesn’t always have to involve going to some remote or exotic place. It simply requires a commitment to put curiosity into action.
In this podcast, you can explore, reflecting on lessons learned from life so far and from my brilliant and ever-inquisitive guests. We explore together in this very moment from right where you are… spaceship not required.
Welcome to Kathy Sullivan Explores.