Posted on 01/03/2019 3:44:38 PM PST by BenLurkin
Kuipers, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, missed dialing an essential number when making a call via Houston, and ended up connecting with the U.S. emergency switchboard.
“If you’re in space, it’s like you’re making a call via Houston, first you dial the 9 for an outside line, and then 011 for an international line,” Kuipers told NOS. The call set off a security alert at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and a security team rushed to check the room through which his call had connected.
The team, of course, found nothing wrong. “I made a mistake,” Kuipers said.
…
NASA Flight Director Holly Riddings said astronauts in the ISS use an IP phone, which works functionally through a computer. “It’s kind of like ‘Space Skype’. They can call any phone in the world if they have the right satellite coverage,” she said.
It seems astronauts calling the wrong number could be a thing. In 2015, British astronaut Tim Peake tweeted an apology to a woman he accidentally called. He said: “I’d like to apologise to the lady I just called by mistake saying ‘Hello, is this planet Earth?’ – not a prank call…just a wrong number!”
(Excerpt) Read more at geek.com ...
“What is your address?”
“Look Kuipers, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over....just don’t call 911 OK?”
Send an officer to that location.
I would have called out for pizza and beer... :)
“The next day I received an email message: did you call 911?”
Kuipers joked that he felt let down that nobody had arrived in response to his call. “I was a little disappointed that they had not come up,” he said.
Priceless.
They run out of chicken nuggets?
The have phone service on board the space station and he misdialed.
How is this a news story?
Butt dialed?
5.56mm
A real Keeper. He obviously has an American sense of humor under his belt.
When seconds count, the police are only light years away.
Just realized I committed the “Kessel Run” error.
WINNAAAHHHHH !
“I saw someone suspicious at the door”.
This thread is comedy gold. I’ve been laughing myself to tears ever since “Somebody drilled a hole in the wall!” More proof of the unparalleled Freeper wit.
Sounds like something Howard Wolowitz would do.
The spacecraft said it wouldn’t let me in. It thought I was Dave.
Dave's not here, man ...
911 - what’s your emergency?
No emergency, I’m just orbiting the Earth and wanted to phone home
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.