It’s 7:47 in the evening. I’m sitting in my apartment, getting wasted, and I’m about to fly the space shuttle. Fortunately for NASA (and anyone who lives near Cape Canaveral), it’s a virtual shuttle.
When most people heard about the recent report suggesting that astronauts have flown under the influence, I’m sure they worried about NASA’s culture, the procedures of spaceflight, and the idea of putting multibillion-dollar pieces of hardware into the hands of boozehounds. Not me: My first thought was “How sober do you need to be to fly the shuttle, anyway?” We’ve sent dogs, monkeys, spiders, and even fruit flies into space, so how hard can it be?
