Trivial, but here goes: does NASA fill out paperwork upon return from space ?
Not like I’d expect a Customs, INS, Agriculture, etc… examination or anything [duh] like the rest of us regular folk; but since IIRC a private pilot leaving US airspace and returning does file papers, manifests, et al, even if only in a rubberstamp fill-in-square-holes-with-square-pegs kind of bureaucratic way, does the shuttle crew do so as well ?
I don’t know the answer to your question, unfortunately. However, I had the chance to meet John Grunsfeld, a physicist turned Mission Scientist, and he laughed about how the NASA bureaucracy handled the “business trip” paperwork of a shuttle flight.
He had the standard old Travel Expenses Reimbursement Form to fill out (or at least to sign), and his official itinerary was: Houston -> Cape Canaveral -> Low Earth Orbit -> Cape Canaveral -> Houston.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t address whether or not the INS or anybody else considers LEO to be “out of the country.”
This may answer your question. It is the coolest US Customs declaration ever filed.
Supposedly one of the guys on the Apollo 13 forgot to file his taxes. So there he is, up in space on April 15. He was granted an extension (supposedly) on the basis he was “out of the country” at the time. So I guess the IRS, at least, has that opinion.
It will have to be just “one of those things” that needs to be worked out once space travel becomes more commonplace. Once private industry starts getting into LEO, then just watch the paperwork start to fly! (so to speak)
Yup. That pretty much ruined his whole flight.
–Grump “Houston, we have an attached schedule 14J” y
Thanks for the link, friedo ! I guess the Customs folk in Hawaii don’t let much past 'em, be it moon dust or brown tree snakes…
Actually, I heard that Customs form was a fake. It’s been kicking around the web recently. Off I go, looking for a cite.
As I recall, the form is not so much a fake as it is a gag the crew was a willing participant to. No customs form were required for Columbia and it’s crew’s reentry into the US, but someone connected with the mission thought it would be fun to fill them out anyway.
No cites yet, but I’ll check my library.
That would explain why it isn’t the standard customs form.
