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Bad Astronomy
« Nerds rule: followup
Sirius Stargazing »

NASA wants your junk

While driving in Los Angeles recently, I was surprised to see this out my passenger window:

Wow. I know NASA‘s budget is small, but this seems a bit unnecessary. I wonder if Harry Broderick was driving?

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November 20th, 2009 11:31 AM by Phil Plait in Humor, NASA | 16 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

16 Responses to “NASA wants your junk”

  1. 1.   JRPB Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 11:39 am

    There’s another NASA-Junk branch office in Tabasco, Mexico (my hometown). Too bad I don’t have pictures; they even had a lil’ rocket with stars around it in their logo!

  2. 2.   Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 11:43 am

    Good catch!
    They have a slick website:
    http://www.nasaservices.com/homepage.html
    But they don’t tell us what NASA stands for. I wonder…

  3. 3.   Bouch Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 11:55 am

    Man, I must be old if I remember “Salvage 1″… Wasn’t the capsule made out of an old cement truck?

  4. 4.   Jamie Mueller Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    Yeah I’m old too–I didn’t need to click the link to know who Harry Broderick was!

  5. 5.   Peter Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    I think NASA is going door to door collecting old 8086 CPU’s for the Space Shuttle.

  6. 6.   Gina Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    If you want irony, their dumpsters are scattered all over JPL…

  7. 7.   Bill Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    This is what happens when the contract goes to the lowest bidder.

  8. 8.   Harold Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    So is that an upside-down A, or a V with a crossbar?

  9. 9.   Joel Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    From looking at all the aluminum and stainless steel workstands and fixtures in the Space Station Processing Facility at KSC, and all the test cabling, I think there will be a huge availability of these items and materials about a year from now. Somebody could make a bundle buying excessed usable items….

  10. 10.   kuhnigget Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    They don’t really pick up your trash. They just film actors pretending to pick it up in a soundstage.

  11. 11.   coolstar Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    Well, the first CCDs were used in astronomy in about 1981 or perhaps a bit earlier. The first affordable ccds became available around 1990 give or take a year or two. so the BA must be older than we think.

  12. 12.   Douglas Killings Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    Harry Broderick — the man who really won the Ansari X-Prize.

    God, I can’t believe I even remember that show…

  13. 13.   Charles Evo Says:
    November 21st, 2009 at 1:05 am

    Bake sale

  14. 14.   Mike Mullen Says:
    November 21st, 2009 at 8:27 am

    Well I know some people think Ares-1 is a piece of junk… :)

  15. 15.   Yiming Hu Says:
    November 21st, 2009 at 8:54 am

    Woooo~ that is really funny.
    Well, can’t that be counted as a tort?

  16. 16.   MichaelL Says:
    November 21st, 2009 at 10:48 am

    Bouch, I loved Salvage 1! Matlock in Space!

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