Ninety-one percent of an Apollo rocket is fuel, four percent of a ’69 Corvette is fuel, and zero percent of the Balloon Boy story was truth. Slower than a speeding bullet, cheaper than a Super Bowl ad, the publicity stunt may not have hurt anyone, but it will cost big bucks plus jail time.
The Falcon has landed. Actually he never took off. The Heene’s amateur aeronautics landed in astronomical trouble on the family scale—it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a hoax! Richard and Mayumi Heene met at acting school, got married, had a family, and launched an unmanned balloon. Viewers around the world watched the publicity stunt lift-off, thinking the flying saucer balloon carried six-year-old Falcon Heene. Child abducted by aliens—not!
Countdown to restitution has begun, and the tab is mounting for the Heene’s. For starters, there is a $42,000 scramble fee from the police, National Guard, and Federal Aviation Administration. Then there is the investigation bill, which could exceed $50,000.
Falcon’s chance at being an astronaut was probably shot down in the balloon he did not fly. His parents are prohibited from rebuilding his college fund with earnings from that stunt for four years. By then, Falcon will be ten, so maybe there is still time. In the interim, mommy and daddy are going to take turns serving jail time.
This loss to NASA potential may set back steps they had planned to make on the moon, unless the space agency is willing to enact a lunar work release program for the Heene parents.
Comments