BadAsstronauts
by Grady Hendrix
Melville, South Carolina was out of money, it was out of jobs, it was out of hope, and today it was out of astronauts. There were only two to begin with, and now one is stuck on the abandoned International Space Station after his mission went south. With NASAβs budget cut to the bone, thereβs no one to bring him back home, so everyone is only too happy to ignore this embarrassing sign of American Failure and just let him die. But his cousin, Walter Reddie, isnβt going to let that happen. Tanked on vodka, living on a βfarmβ whose only crop is cars on cinderblocks, Walter's a wash-out from the Shuttle Program and heβll be damned if heβs going to let his cousin die in the sky like a dog. And so he begins to build a rocket. If America wonβt rescue its astronauts, heβll do it himself.