Syndicated radio host Tom Joyner may have booked a lot of air miles to earn the nickname “Fly Jock,” but he never got as far off the Earth as his guest Thursday on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.” Astronaut Stephanie Wilson joined the show from the orbiting International Space Station.
Instead of focusing on NASA and what it is like to be in space, Joyner threw Wilson a curve ball, asking if she’d gotten her hair done before blasting off on the Space Shuttle Discovery. “Of course, I always try to represent NASA as best I can. So, hopefully, I’m looking pretty good,” the astronaut replied.
Joyner noted that a record had been set, with more women in orbit right now than ever before. Wilson and two other women aboard the shuttle joined one already on the space station for a total of four. Wilson, an engineer with degrees from Harvard and the University of Texas, was the second African-American woman to fly in space in 2004 and is currently on her third shuttle mission.
Making a pitch for a current campaign, Joyner wanted to know if Wilson had filled out her US Census form before Monday’s launch. She assured him that she had, but that she had filed for an extension on her income tax filing due April 15th. Joyner was doing his show from Orlando as part of a 2010 census tour to encourage listeners to participate in the count of all American residents, which determines such things as the allocation of congressional seats and funding for various government programs.
Photo credit: NASA TV
