"Ptichka, please respond," the traffic controller on duty on Stellvia hailed the incoming shuttle analogue. "I repeat, Ptichka, please respond."
"We've got them on visual si..." the technician beside him broke off as she spotted the markings on the upper wing surfaces. "Sir, that's not Ptichka."
"Whaddaya mean?" he asked gesticulating wildly at the screen. "There's only one 'Space shuttle' in our neck of the woods, and that's Ptichka!"
At that moment the communications panel caught onto transmissions on a 'dane frequency.
"... is NASA Pegasus requesting docking procedures 'cause we have NO idea what we're doing!" A frantic tween's voice called out. "Can we get some HELP?"
Pegasus is a full size plywood mockup built to NASA specs for one of the Space Camp locations. After the particular camp folded from a lack of proximity to NASA's facilities in either Florida or Texas, the Mockup was moved to the University of Oklahoma's Aerospace Engineering Department and used for the Oklahoma City area's school systems' summer science camps. As the 'Wave hit and folks were less and less enamored of hardtech space exploration, the mockup was mothballed in a Warehouse in Norman, Oklahoma, while the space it had taken up was used for a paleontology exhibit.
Remembering Ptichka, a group of NASA Fen had a "Blue Hair Day" and decided to get the shuttles in the public eye again. An attempt to "handwash" Pathfinder at the still-active Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama was thwarted, but a simultaneous, more thorough, run on Pegasus was successful. However, the "adult" in charge (who was sixteen) was not aboard as the nascent AI on board woke up and lifted with a whinny. Kind of prophetic when they used some of Ptichka's Documentaries and the movie Space Camp while refitting her, eh? That said, Pegasus should have some of her own quirks, but as I'm writing this, I'm burning out on inspiration.![[Image: wink.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif)
Edited to add: The real mockup I'm basing Pegasus on was nowhere NEAR as complete as I'm writing. As I remember it from my own clambering experience, only the top Deck fore of the engine nacelles was there. Enough of a mockup that kids would go "WOW! The Space Shuttle!"
Pathfinder, OTOH, is a real Mockup NASA used to test the pre-launch procedures, the ground based equivalent to the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
"We've got them on visual si..." the technician beside him broke off as she spotted the markings on the upper wing surfaces. "Sir, that's not Ptichka."
"Whaddaya mean?" he asked gesticulating wildly at the screen. "There's only one 'Space shuttle' in our neck of the woods, and that's Ptichka!"
At that moment the communications panel caught onto transmissions on a 'dane frequency.
"... is NASA Pegasus requesting docking procedures 'cause we have NO idea what we're doing!" A frantic tween's voice called out. "Can we get some HELP?"
Pegasus is a full size plywood mockup built to NASA specs for one of the Space Camp locations. After the particular camp folded from a lack of proximity to NASA's facilities in either Florida or Texas, the Mockup was moved to the University of Oklahoma's Aerospace Engineering Department and used for the Oklahoma City area's school systems' summer science camps. As the 'Wave hit and folks were less and less enamored of hardtech space exploration, the mockup was mothballed in a Warehouse in Norman, Oklahoma, while the space it had taken up was used for a paleontology exhibit.
Remembering Ptichka, a group of NASA Fen had a "Blue Hair Day" and decided to get the shuttles in the public eye again. An attempt to "handwash" Pathfinder at the still-active Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama was thwarted, but a simultaneous, more thorough, run on Pegasus was successful. However, the "adult" in charge (who was sixteen) was not aboard as the nascent AI on board woke up and lifted with a whinny. Kind of prophetic when they used some of Ptichka's Documentaries and the movie Space Camp while refitting her, eh? That said, Pegasus should have some of her own quirks, but as I'm writing this, I'm burning out on inspiration.
Edited to add: The real mockup I'm basing Pegasus on was nowhere NEAR as complete as I'm writing. As I remember it from my own clambering experience, only the top Deck fore of the engine nacelles was there. Enough of a mockup that kids would go "WOW! The Space Shuttle!"
Pathfinder, OTOH, is a real Mockup NASA used to test the pre-launch procedures, the ground based equivalent to the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll