[391] in Humor
HUMOR: Can We Have Our Cosmonauts Back? Please?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (abennett@MIT.EDU)
Wed Aug 3 10:37:24 1994
From: abennett@MIT.EDU
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 03 Aug 94 10:30:56 EDT
MOSCOW (Reuter) - Kazakhstan customs men were unimpressed
when Russian space industry officials said they wanted to
retrieve a craft with two cosmonauts aboard that had just
returned from orbit and landed in the central Asian republic.
It took two days to convince them the request was no joke.
``The Kazakh customs kept demanding a document confirming
the vessel had really dropped out of the sky,'' space official
Viktor Legostayev told Itar-Tass news agency. The space program
of the former Soviet Union, based in Kazakhstan, is administered
by Russia.
The space ship had just completed a 15-day flight with
cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev and Yuri Usachev on board. The two
were allowed to leave the craft before officials started
untangling the red tape.
