Before I relay this tale to you, I have to thank Beads of Courage and NASA for making it all possible. The fact that three of my Space Monkey beads traveled on the Shuttle and orbited this Earth will for ever be wonder to me. I hope this story of the adventures of Sam Supernova, Mike Mercury and Ray Gamma will be taken for what it is, a little bit of Monkey Madness!
Without further ado — Chapter One!
–Thurs May 13 2010 – T -1 Day and counting
For Mike Mercury, Ray Gamma and Sam Supernova the last few weeks had been a whirlwind of excitement.
From leaving their sleepy little village of Merrickville, nestled on the banks of the Rideau Canal in Ontario to now trying to fall asleep on the eve before their launch into orbit around the Earth.
It turns out it was easier for Mike & Ray to fall asleep than it was for Sam. Two weeks of intensive training and tests had left all three of them exhausted but excited. Mike and Ray were snoring in their bunks while Sam counted again… ’297, 298, 299….’ he groaned. 299 little ball bearings rolled around inside the box on his lap. Sam groaned because the last time he counted there were 300.
One was missing!!!
Now ordinarily this might not be a problem, but this was NASA! This was a SPACE MISSION! This was a time when every nut, bolt and hair on an astronaut’s head was counted and accounted for. It was bad enough that Sam was sneaking his own experiment on board (the effect of zero gravity on 300 ball bearings), but to have lost one was disastrous! Sam thought back to the last time he counted them – it was just before the three space monkeys went to watch the payload get put aboard the shuttle – he KNEW he had 300 bearings as the payload bay doors closed shut and everyone cheered as this step in the preparation for launch was completed.
Somewhere between then and now one had gone missing.
Sam fell into a troubled sleep.
Click Here for the complete story – Story-monkeys in space!