The Astronaut Maker by Michael Cassutt

Author:Michael Cassutt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2018-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

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On Friday, August 21—his forty-ninth birthday—Abbey was in his eighth-floor office when he heard and saw something outside.

It was Superman, though not flying as he had in television shows or comic books—he was dangling from a rope, pounding on the glass and singing “Happy birthday to you . . . !” Then Superman dropped out of sight, rappelling to the ground and disappearing.

Soon, though, word reached Abbey from a very upset Kraft that two culprits, dressed in overalls, had talked their way into building 1 and up to the ninth floor pretending to be window washers.

There they had found an unoccupied office and window overlooking the northwest corner, then attached rope to stanchions mounted on the exterior.

One of the pair took off the overalls, revealing a Superman costume, and then rappelled off the building to complete the prank.

As Superman fled, the accomplice packed up the gear and left the building.

JSC security soon identified the culprits, however—Superman was Jim Bagian and the accomplice was Guy Gardner. Both were astronauts from the 1980 group.

Cliff Charlesworth, the center’s deputy director, was not amused and convinced Kraft to order Abbey to order John Young to deliver appropriate written punishment.

Young met with the pair—showed them the reprimand—then balled it up. “I thought it was shit-hot.”

At the other end of the spectrum, there was the mysterious portrait of Abbey that found its way aboard Columbia. El Onizuka, astronaut support for STS-2, and definitely in the bubba group, connived with Steve Hawley and Kathy Sullivan, two other TFNGs assigned to support, to place a portrait of Abbey on the middeck with the caption, possibly ironic, “To George W. S. Abbey, our leader and inspiration.”

It would fly on STS-3, 4 and 5 . . . then disappear.

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