At the weekly Springfield Nuclear Power Plant Employee of the Week ceremony, Homer, having never received even such a trivial award, states that plant regulations dictate that he is to receive the award at least once, is confident that he will win this weeks' award. Mr. Burns, however, gives the award to an "inanimate carbon rod" for no reason. Feeling dejected, Homer watches TV, and stumbling across the live shuttle launch, decides to go to Moe's.
Meanwhile, NASA is frustrated over a decline in ratings for the space shuttle launches, and decides to send an "everyman" into space, using popular TV programs as an example. Homer, drunk at the bar, calls them to complain at that very moment, and exhibits their idea of an 'everyman', and they decide to send him into space. Homer blames Barney, thinking he's in trouble, then admits to calling NASA. They decide to test both Barney and Homer for the mission.
The decision is made to send Barney, who, up to this point has been sober due an alcohol ban, on a mission with Buzz Aldrin and Race Banyon, but while toasting the moment (with non-alcoholic champagne), Barney instantly becomes drunk and crashes a jetpack onto the roof of a pillow factory, then falls onto a road and is run over by a marshmallow truck. Homer is then declared winner by default.
After the launch, Homer opens a bag of potato chips, and the chips spread around the cabin. Homer then floats around to eat the chips, but breaks an ant farm experiment, spreading ants around and shorting out the navigation system. James Taylor, in Houstin to play a song for the crew, and suggests they create a vacuum to get rid of both the ants and potato chips. In the process, Homer is sucked out of the shuttle, but gets pulled back in by Aldrin and Banyon, breaking the door's hatch in the process. Homer then fixes it by securing the door with a carbon rod, saving the crew from burning up on re-entry. Once the shuttle lands (in a media convention), Homer is credited with saving the mission, but the reporters praise the inanimate carbon rod, and hold a ticker tape parade.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Brick Joke: Homer losing to a carbon rod.
- The Cameo: Buzz Aldrin and James Taylor guest star.
- Crack Defeat: See Brick Joke above.
- Homage:
- 2001: A Space Odyssey;
- Star Trek;
- Alien;
- NASA watches Home Improvement and Married... with Children to get ideas;
- Homer hopes they don't land on Planet of the Apes, then figures out the ending.
- Kent Brockman News: A classic example, where Kent Brockman, after seeing an ant float past the news camera, overreacts and immediately assumes a race of 'space ants' has enslaved the crew and is about to take over earth, then appologises after someone presumably has a talk with him.
