My Space Program: GSS

[veggero]

It's 1969. Nasa is flying to the Moon and Greece is following, overcoming the last issues to set up its own space program, the greek space style. The GSS project started the 1st of january 1970. Two pilots, a scientist and an engineer were enlisted to begin with - Jebhedian, Valentina, Bill and Bob. The C.E.O., a hideous fella known as Veggero Kerman, scheduled the first launch on the 4th of january - "It is going to be an hour of national pride, when the cradle of astronomy, physics and politics will become home to cosmology. We are all excited and, as we all know, the first launch will be a success". God, if He does exist, took note of this sentence. The next day a problem arose.

to be continued - Translation by @signo, thanks.

[veggero]

A simple routine operation failed. During che symbolic Feta's handover ceremony, Jeb refused it. The delight born from greek milk fell on the floor directly from his hands. Refused. Jeb didn't want to ride a rocket. His version, revised by his lawyer, was "Can a ship not tested, not built and not even designed be safe?". A happy Veg was rubbing his hands: small internal problems, journalists, advertisement. But journalists never came, they were focusing on a VP. stable burnt down due to new year's eve firecrackers. Veg tried to settle down things (both the stable AND the space center) holding a press conference but less than halfway in Val stood up yelling at Jeb. Veg was furious and left. Bob tried to hide under a chair. Bill chose to get a new surname and left Kerman for Gates. In all that mess Jeb came up with an idea.

[veggero]

Had them already discovered psychohistory on january the 3rd 1970 the gss would have been labeled as a failure. That wasn't the case and a small crowd gathered that day. Speaker? It was nothing else than Jeb, blessed by a newborn Tsipras. He rolled out a fiery speech, presenting scientific datas on how women were best suited to tolerate zero G. Last but not least he underlined how in all the other space programs all astronauts were men. Greece must be different - he said - introducing Val as a new astronaut. She tried to react but she was suddenly overwhelmed by applauses. Maybe she was going to be forced to do it; she was defeated. The same 3 january another very bad outcome meeting went on.

[veggero]

Veg did not wake up the 4th of january, wrong alarm clock settings... The space center was a mess: feta ceremony was held by Bob (he said the cheese was poisoned) and this time without any issue. Val unwillingly ate it. The rocket design should have been introduced in a meeting the 3rd of january and assembled the next morning. That wasn't the case. Veg tried to investigate how and why hte project was missing. By 11 o'clock he discovered there were two projects, designed by Bill and by Jeb and nobody could make a choice. Jeb's rocket was definitely Jeb's rocket – moar boosters plus one (you need at least to give a try at landing with a suicide burn). Bill's rocket was an ol'school classical booster/pod/chute package. Veg convened Bob and Val for the voting. Val voted "against Jeb". Veg voted for Jeb. Bob simply disappeared leaving a note reading "Goodbye and thank you for all the bread crusts".Veg knew he was not a scientist so his opinion was not reliable. He knew Val would always be against Jeb too, so her opinion was eventually useless. Suddenly Jeb and Bill broke in. It was midnight.

[veggero]