I wonder why Maverick never joined the astronaut program? Space Shuttle too boring? Not wanting to be called an ASCAN (astronaut candidate)?

I think Mav and Ice would be pro-SpaceX. possibly even pro Elon pre-twitter meltdown.

as someone who likes space as much as the next queer ND girl (love space sooo much)… planes are way cooler ngl. yes. space is a bit boring. slow & quiet. no one to hear you scream and no one watching you be cool. space suits are clunky and awkward. no fast piloting maneuvers (mav’s specialty). no room for horseplay. “someone’s already beat me to the moon what’s the point😞.” NASA gets mad at you if you say anything rude over their public radio waves. and, this is a headcanon that has no evidence in canon? But i feel like mav is one of those pilots who takes a LOT of his confidence from the assumption that, whenever he chooses, he CAN bring his plane back down to the surface and come home. And has never really considered space as Somewhere You Can Go, and once he’s presented with that opportunity it…kinda scares him a little. space is just so big. and empty. and far from home. i know the requirement for astronauts is 50km off the ground… whatever the darkstars max altitude is (110k ft AGL?) he’s probably like, yeah, that’s good . That’s as far from the earths surface i ever need to be. That’s good enough.

oh yea Ice and mav were DEFINITELY pro-elon pre Twitter meltdown. they live in a wealthy part of California. every other car on the street in Cali is a tesla i s2g. coming from someone who’s spent most of their life in the SF Bay Area—most Cali liberals were pro-elon until extremely recently. now every third tesla i see has a “i bought this before I knew elon was insane” bumper sticker