On NASA, Saudi Prince Moonbeam, Road to Mecca, Miss Baker, Able, and My Best Hero Laika. Earth to Qom
“An auction will be held tomorrow in New York for some mementos belonging to NASA astronauts, especially those who explored the moon. One of the mementos is a (US) passport of one astronaut that carries a stamped visa from Saudi Arabia, the country which sent the first Arab astronaut into space 24 years ago…..This is the only Arab item among these mementos…..”
A visa to Saudi Arabia twenty years ago used to be almost like an invitation to….Mars. It still is in some ways since the country generally does not give tourist visas for casual tourist traveling.
Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (all those infernal bins again) went into space with an American mission in June 1985. He joined the U.S space shuttle Discovery as a representative of the Arab Satellite Communications Corporation. During the mission, he claimed that his main concern was to figure out which way to face in praying, since there is no East-West-North-South direction out there, and he could not figure out that Mecca was on the planet Earth. I recall at the time referring to His Highness as “Prince Moonbeam”, respectfully of course. Although the bit about losing his bearings to Mecca reminded more of George of the Jungle.
NASA has also sent ‘guests’ from other countries into space over the years, including famously our simian cousins Miss Baker and Able. They went into space in May 28, 1959- almost 24 years before the lift-off of His Royal Highness.
As far as I know, no mullah has been sent into space yet: that probably would have to await an Iranian space program. No, not the one in Qom.
Still, my forever favorite space hero. also one of my all-time heroes, is the heroic Laika who traveled into space on the Soviet Sputnik 2 (Nov 3, 1957). Laika was everyone’s hero at the time, everyone except maybe John Foster Dulles, Francisco Franco, and Fulgencio Batista. She helped light a fire under the American ass and the U.S. space program was seriously launched.
Cheers
mhg
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