Ethan G. Salwen

It wasn’t a dirty joke. That’s what I was expecting when I opened the email Carla forwarded me yesterday from Uncle Maurice up in New Jersey.

You see, it was titled “Space Shuttle Cockpit,” and so I was sure it was one of the inoffensive “dirty” jokes he’s always passing around. But, no, this is the actual cockpit of the Space Shuttle Discovery — made as it gets decommissioned, snif, sif.

I guess Carla felt compelled to share after our talk about the significance of The Last Shuttle mission, which made me feel sad and sentimental — Josh and I woke up early on April 12, 1981, to see the first shuttle blast off — but, I confess, I couldn’t even do a good job of explaining to Carla what the hell the Shuttle is. Oh well.

This kind of 360VR experience often makes me feel dizzy and disoriented, but isn’t a little dizzy disorientation appropriate when visiting a place designed for floating astronauts?