DURST: John Glenn's Return to Space
John Glenn has received the go-ahead to return to space on the shuttle Discovery this fall. If it happens, Glenn, at 77, the first American to orbit the Earth in a Mercury 7 capsule back in 1962, would also become the oldest man in space, after Timothy Leary, that is. Glenn offered himself as a guinea pig for tests that might improve earthbound research on the human aging process. "There has to be enough science behind this that it can't be ridiculed as a stunt," said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. Logsdon apparently doesn't think a stunt befits NASA's image as an imperturbable organization specializing in blowing things up real good. So my guess is a live pay per view Spice Girls in Space Concert is out of the question. Darn the Luck. Could have raised enough money to get those girls some sensible shoes. If Glenn is going up to help investigate aging, maybe we could get Clinton to go up to see whether sleaze freezes, or send Newt Gingrich up to help analyze the survival rate of good ol boys taking space walks without their helmets on. After all, these two guys put the oink in guinea pig. Will Durst wants to do research on how many beers it takes to get drunk enough to sing "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" at a Karaoke Bar in zero gravity.
