Even In Space, A Mexican Guy Repairs Your Ride

Scheduled to return tomorrow from his first mission in space is astronaut John "Danny" Olivas, one of NASA's eight Hispanic astronauts. What was he doing up there, you ask? Helping re-attach an insulating blanket that had blown back from the shuttle Atlantis when it took off, as commander of something called the 'Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator Robot'. (Hang on a minute while we picture that scene from "Up In Smoke" where Cheech's character Pedro sings, "I'm just a love ma-cheen, and I won't work for nobody but chou!") Olivas even had time to phone in an interview with an El Paso, TX television station:

"Words don't do it justice," he told KFOX. "There's just a tremendous feel of the vehicle as you're making an ascent and once you get into orbit, the feeling is just phenomenal and we've been enjoying it since we got here so it's ... words are hard to describe."

Well put, Danny: we, too, find words hard to describe at times. The real kicker is, you'll probably get back and have to do car maintenance for some guy down the block. Hispanic NASA Astronaut Returning to Earth [Hispanic Business] Image [Hispanic Business]