(2003-11-27) — U.S. President George Bush today followed his unexpected visit with the troops in Iraq, with a spur-of-the-moment stop at the International Space Station (ISS) in Earth orbit.
After a rousing speech to the troops in Baghdad, Mr. Bush ordered Air Force One to take an unplanned detour to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia where the President boarded a Soyuz rocket.
The ISS trip was so top secret that the few in NASA or the Russian space agency were even aware of it until the President passed through the airlock and began squeezing out the tubes of turkey paste to serve Thanksgiving dinner to the crew.
The White House had arranged a cover story about a “crunching” sound that the crew allegedly heard, but which was really the sound of the President’s Soyuz docking. News organizations around the world carried the fake story.
Mr. Bush spent about 45 minutes in orbit before returning to Earth for his traditional family dinner of turkey and so-called “fixin’s” at his ranch in Crawford, TX.
Top ScrappleFace Stories...
- Obama’s Mission Accomplished, Ginsburg’s Fave Constitution.
(0) Comments | Uncategorized - Mitt Stomps Newt; Paul Has Options;Deficit Tops $1 Trillion; Obama & Romney Sing
(0) Comments | Uncategorized - Newt Slams Mitt’s Character, Paul Takes Lead in Fla. Niche, Senate to Ban Insider Trading
(0) Comments | Uncategorized - Next GOP Debate Offshore? Hillary Done with Politics? Demi Moore in a Huff?
(0) Comments | Uncategorized - Obama “Can’t Wait” for SOTU, and He Won’t; Will Announce Next Bailout of American Icon
(0) Comments | Uncategorized
Bush Pays Surprise Visit to Space Station
by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · · · No Comments Print This Story
Tags: U.S. News
0 responses so far ↓
1 Overtaken by Events // Nov 28, 2003 at 11:19 am
Brilliant, Part Deux
Continued from here: Steven Taylor whips out the under-used term Wowie, and throws in a Wowie2 for good measure. James…
2 Spacecraft // Dec 1, 2003 at 10:10 pm
ISS Noise Not Debris
Looks like NASA has been continuing to take this incident seriously, but are they taking it seriously enough? I don’t know, but I don’t think we’ve heard the last of it (no pun intended). UP
3 Spacecraft // Jan 9, 2004 at 3:46 pm
Speech Location
Some say President Bush will make the expected space policy speech at NASA Headquarters. I believe he’ll pull off a repeat of this performance….