 |
| Photo Courtesy of NASA |
The latest re-supply rocket that was sent to the International Space Station had an unexpected parcel aboard, in the form of about fifty pounds of Semtex plastic explosives. The astronauts weren't in any danger, because the compound is very stable unless rigged to a special blasting cap, but they were quite confused.
The package's intended destination was the ISIS military group in Iraq. It's believed that a combination of the similarity in the acronyms, the poor reliability of shipping companies in post-Soviet nations, and the difficulty in visually distinguishing processed rations from the putty-like explosive compounds resulted in the mix-up. The mistake probably would have been caught if not for the mission having been rushed, due to the recent launch failure of the last resupply mission.
It's currently unknown if ISIS received the packages of Russian carbohydrate/protein bars that were supposed to be part of the resupply mission payload. KeyWeekly sought out a representative of their organization for comment, but has yet to receive a response.
What the astronauts aboard the space station are going to do with the Semtex is also unknown. Considering the overwhelming cost of sending supplies into orbit, they are planning on possibly doing some experiments with explosions in micro-gravity and ultra-low atmosphere conditions. Experiments done very far away from the station itself, obviously.
"We're scientists who ride into space on tin cans filled with explosives," said flight engineer Douglas Schelling. "We're not quite as worried about having this stuff kicking around as you might think."
No comments:
Post a Comment