Updated on April 22, 2016
Financially Strapped NASA Uses Old Wienermobile for Space Station Training
NASA execs are hoping for an eventual budget increase, but in the meantime, the space agency announced at a press conference today that it has sold the near life-sized Space Station Mockup and Training Facility, or SSMTF (pronounced ssmtf), and astronauts will instead practice inside and outside a twelve-year-old Wienermobile recently donated by the Oscar Mayer Company.
Astronaut Snapper Gumbling polishes a wheel while Donde Womberger (upper right) practices for a future spacewalk
NASA spokesperson Pogo Smode told Parksplug that astronauts Donde Womberger and Snapper Gumbling, Jr. will spend the next six months living inside the faded yellow and orange wiener, which is parked behind a NASA maintenance building at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Smode praised Oscar Mayer, saying its leaders were “true patriots”, and he choked up as he recounted how the company presented NASA with not just the Wienermobile, but also a couple of cardboard hot dog signs and a blue portable tent.
During a dramatic demonstration for reporters, Womberger took a simulated spacewalk along the Wienermobile’s stern while Gumbling polished the vehicle’s chrome wheels with the seat of his space suit.
