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The crew of the International Space Station sent down an image of an unscheduled spacewalk that allegedly took place earlier today. “We wanted to welcome you guys to April, and hopefully we brought you guys some smiles and not a lot of nervousness,” T.J. Creamer radioed down to Mission Control in Houston.
“Yes, you welcomed us to April, and you did it in a grand way!” replied veteran astronaut Shannon Lucid, serving as Capcom. “You have a real problem, but you know it’s outside our ability to help you.”
Creamer and crewmates Soichi Noguchi and Oleg Kotav assured Lucid they were wearing eye protection and Lucid wondered if they put sunscreen on. “Getting vitamin D is great, but don’t stay out too long,” she said.
“Oh, Mom can’t we stay out longer?” Creamer joked.
This image is reminiscent of a picture fellow journalist Rachel Hobson took of me while we were at Kennedy Space Center, below. There was a model of the newly installed Cupola in the KSC press room, and several journalists took turns taking pictures of each other, and the images ended up looking similar to what the ISS crew created today. The astronauts obviously have some digital image editing software on board.
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