Space Plat

(Newsline — Cape Kennedy, Florida, May 19, 2010) NASA has just released this picture of the spacewalk of Mo Taz, the first monotreme in space. [A native of a cold highland river stream on the Australian island-state of Tasmania, Mo long ago adopted an abbreviated version of his homeland’s name as his own surname.]

Mo’s participation in a shuttle crew was long delayed, both by the lengthy development of a zero-gravity outfit suited to his squatly ellipsoid body shape with fat-storing tail, and by the setback-prone refinement of an appropriate extraterrestrial meal plan of freeze-dried worms, larvae and yabbies.

On this last Atlantis mission, Mo proved of great help to his crewmates in the installation of replacement batteries on the Space Station. Also, his natural sense of electrolocation was invaluable in conducting minor spot-welding repairs to telemetry components.

(And, as an added bonus, his venomous rear-ankle spurs would have come in quite handy in the case of any Alien-life encounter!)