Close to Home by John McPherson for March 06, 2024

“to the moon, Alice!”

Top right or bottom right? I always ask, and no one ever answers me!

Yeah, Ed, it’s not exactly rocket science.

Unless it’s a left hand thread.

Anyone other than me look at this and remember the Challenger disaster of 1986 (and why the shuttle in question blew up)? ;/

And by the way, how’s your wife, Ed?

what if Ed is left-handed (like me)?

… and remember to transmogrify the gizmometer this time, Ed!

The apprenticeship of Ed Kravitz…

Hi, Bleeb. I hope that you aren’t planning to head home in that thing. We need you here, little alien buddy.

NASA? More like Boeing

It’s not rocket science.

Please share this important knowledge with Boeing!

On a similar note, I once showed a young washer repair man the right-hand rule for screw and bolt threads: If you make a fist with your right hand with your thumb sticking up, turning in the direction of your fingers makes the screw advance in the direction of your thumb. He had never heard of that.

(There are also left-hand threads: American Motors used to use them for lug nuts on the left-hand side of the jeeps they made. Caused a few of us Army Reserve grunts a lot of frustration once trying change a flat until an older, more experienced NCO clued us in over the radio to torque the nuts the other way.)

The tool box is funny detail. HA!

Happy landings.

Or was it: Lefty locky, righty releasy?

I was going to say “It’s not rocket science” but 5 people already beat me to it. “It’s not rocket science” … there, I said it anyway!

Ha! I always wondered where Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation worked.

Not if it was made in China.

Just “left-loosey”, not “lefty-loosey”?

Seems to me that this cartoon would be more relevant with the vehicle being a 737Max. How many bolts weren’t there?

If that guy’s your engineer…you’re screwed.

Maybe these guys should work at Boeing :-(

Very bad advice. Oxygen and other oxidizer elements, commonly used in rockets, are counter-threaded to prevent horrible accidents. If you accidentally connected an oxygen line to a fuel line, it would be a catastrophe. Counterthreading makes it impossible.

Otherwise gooey kablooey

The instructions for assembly or maintenance of something like a rocket or space craft do indeed include mention of the direction a bolt or screw needs to be turned plus the amount of force that needs to be used.