Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Terry Knox. Sydney, Australia

I just caught up with Terry Knox who was on the first and only Australian commander of the International Space Station. The ISS is one of humanities greatest inventions. It was so huge, he said, that you could see it with your naked eye down on Earth. It took a long time and a lot of cooperation to build this station; about 16 countries collaborating and over 10 years. It was expensive and took up a lot of resources. This station was extremely important to humanity.
Aboard the ISS, Mr. Knox and his companions watched surveillance videos and news feeds around the world. They couldn’t do anything but watch. Food and supplies wouldn’t last forever aboard the ISS. Everything was used to its fullest potential, which includes eating the test animals.
There were modifications made to help keep the station on orbit and up and running. One of these modifications included tampering with the ATV, the Automated Transfer Vehicle. These robots, like “Boba”, were also used to help maintain the station.
Many scenes and audio were viewed over time aboard the ISS. They saw the Three Gorges Dan collapse; killing an unknown amount of civilians and destroying everything in its way. There was a funny thing that happened. This zombie was chasing a mole in a sand dune, and when the Zed Head tried to get in the burrow, sand just kept falling on it. The zombie stayed there for 5 days trying to catch it, but one morning, it just stopped and wondered away, as if nothing happened. The mole made it away. They also listened to the Chinese president’s speech. He says it was an “unforeseen tragedy.”
They came across the Chinese space station and heard a distress call. Eventually Terry boarded the Yang Liwei. There was some kind of conspiracy in there, and the station was rigged with explosives. The explosives were part of a “Scorched Space” policy, which basically meant, “if we can’t have it, neither can anyone else.” Luckily, the station didn’t explode and the crew of the ISS took its supplies for themselves, which lasted about 3 extra years.
Terry Knox and the crew don’t regret anything. In fact, if they had the chance, they’d do it again. Terry was a nice man; unfortunately, he died 3 days after our interview.

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