1
Crewmember, Eichii Tanaka, floated in the cupola of the orbiting International Space Station and observed slack-jawed as the main core of Travers’ comet flashed by less than five miles away and slammed into the centre of the United States. Overcome with fear for the safety of his family in Tokyo, he witnessed the massive explosion.
Australian astronaut, Major Shane Meggs, everybody called him ‘Ginger’, who was floating next to Eichii in the cupola, quipped,
‘We’re about as useful as tits on a bull up here, Itchy.’
Ginger was the larrikin of the station. He had a nickname for everyone. He re-christened Eichii Tanaka, ‘Itchy Knackers’.
2
Sixteen seconds after the main core of the comet buried itself forty miles into the planet, a quarter-mile-wide piece of rock, travelling at 12.5 miles per second, smashed the International Space Station into eternal oblivion.
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