After 286 days in space, rescued astronauts face over $20,000 in parking tickets
Raining on the homecoming parade
Amid the joy of their successful return to earth after 286 days stranded in space, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are also facing a less jubilant reality: They owe nearly $22,000 in unpaid parking tickets.
They learned of their fate upon arriving back at the space station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the pair had launched into the great beyond in June. There, they saw that the windshield of Wilmore’s car was blanketed with yellow parking tickets, some soggy and others crusted onto the glass after being there for so long.
“I assumed we’d have a reserved parking space at the station,” Williams said. “But when we arrived on the day of the launch, the lot was full and all we could find was street parking a few blocks away. We considered doing a couple more laps but were already running late. So we parallel-parked and took our chances.”
The decision turned out to be a big mistake, Williams admitted. “Thank God we carpooled.”
Cars in that area are limited to three hours of parking. Extra fees are added for vehicles that are parked overnight. At about halfway through their journey through space, a street-sweeper was scheduled to roll through, which outlawed any parking whatsoever for a full day. Their failure to abide to the order earned them yet another hefty charge.
Questions are mounting for both NASA, for not providing their prized astronauts a reserved parking space, and for the city, for allowing tickets to pile up for so long without towing the vehicle.
As it goes with many government entities, asking questions is one thing, getting answers quite another.
To make matters worse, Wilmore is also facing nearly $11 in fees for overdue library books in his hometown of Houston, Texas, namely for his loan of “Oh The Places You’ll Go,” by Dr. Seuss.
Houston Public Library President Janet Bishop told Battle Line that she automatically renewed the book twice, but that there were other people patiently waiting in the queue. “As soon as we make an exception for one person - no matter the reason - then we open Pandora’s Box,” she said.
“We’re grateful to be back home,” Wilmore said. “That’s what really matters. As for all these unexpected fines and fees, we’ll figure something out.”