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Marveling at the revolving panorama of natural color, Lewis remembered it had barely been two years since she applied to NASA. She felt a sudden surprise realizing many of her astronaut colleagues had-in some cases-waited a decade for their mission to arrive. Some, she knew, went years longer before they had their ride off planet.
"CAPCOM, Lewis..." A voice buzzed in her Comm cap. "Media's asking the PRO for five Live to broadcast. Can We do that? MEDCOM promises today will be easy for you two."
"Can do. Let me just show you around," Lewis waved as she spoke into a small video camera placed between her feet, in the foot tray. She was concealing how self-conscious it made her feel, looking right up berween her legs. "The lump in the suit next to me is a dumb SpaceApe named Henry Clark."
Clark waved, voicing ape grunts and grinning. Playfully, Cardinal punched him saying, "Be nice or you'll be riding outside, Ape!"
"Copy," Clark was in reality her passenger. Lewis had qualified as Pilot and Mission Commander. NASA seized on her as their current Golden Girl. He wondered sometimes if that would last. There were former Stars he had met who upon retiring from the Agency faded swiftly into obscurity. Feeling themselves pimped they chose to exit from the Public Eye. Lewix was still panting in a dry breathy voice as she continued.
"Outside, the colors are...incredible!" Clark was almost wondering if the CO scrubbers connecting to her 02 were failing. Equipment failures did occur, He knew. Even NASA vehicles were utilized with known systems not working, The Columbia's last crew launched knowing their Emergency 02 Supply System was not operational. It hardly mattered. Their end was so violent, there was no chance of surviving. They had been battered, exposed to the killing envitonment of Space and died in a handful of seconds. A functioning Emergency 02 System would only have made their demise worse.
"And be sure to connect with our NASASpace media pages for daily updates on our mission," Cardinal was saying.
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