"Ramon's Universe" (Part Two)
The Unbeliveable Story of How A Mexican Maintenance Man Saved NASA
The incident that saw Ramon launched into space was a colossal embarrassment for NASA. As the dust settled and reality set in, officials at the space agency were left with the daunting task of deciding what to do next. The first and most immediate decision they made was to keep the entire ordeal under wraps. They believed that the less the public knew about Ramon's accidental journey, the better.
Behind closed doors, a sense of hopelessness hung heavily in the air at NASA. “The technical glitch” that had propelled a maintenance man into space was a problem they had never anticipated. They realized that they had no immediate means of retrieving Ramon from his unexpected voyage. The sheer magnitude of the error left them flabbergasted.
Meanwhile, Ramon was in awe at the views he saw through the craft’s windows.
“Yo, Houston! This is Captain Ramon Hernandez! Haha! You can call me Captain from now on, right? Check this out! Ave María purísima! I can see Mexico from up here! Oh, can you do me a favor, Ese? Call my wife and tell her I won’t be home for dinner tonight! Tell her I had to go to the moon on a secret mission or something.”
“Oh, and also, I need someone to water my chilis! They won’t survive without me!”
Back at Mission Control, McDavid rubbed his temples as if trying to magically erase the nightmare unfolding before him.
“Did he just ask us to water his chilis?” he muttered incredulously to his colleagues.
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