Robin Williams, an Oscar—winning actor and comedian who died of an apparent suicide at age 63, helped wake up the crew of NASA’s space shuttle Discovery to start their morning in 1988.
“G-o-o-d morning Discovery! G-o-o-d morning Discovery! Rise and shine, boys. Time to start doing that shuttle shuffle. You know what I mean. Hey, here’s a little song coming from the billions of us to the five of you,” he said in a video.
The wakeup call - inspired by his role in 1987 movie “Good Morning, Vietnam” - left the STS-26 mission controllers orbiting the earth laugh and smile.
STS-26 Commander Frederick H. Hauck, Pilot Richard Covey, Mission Specialists Mike Lounge, Pinky Nelson and David Hilmers received the traditional wake-up call on their first day in orbit on a mission.
“They were to deploy NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-3, part of a network of satellites that support numerous NASA satellites and human spacecraft, including the International Space Station,” NASA officials wrote in a video description of the wakeup call.
