Seriously Unqualified Comedian Applies To Work For NASA And Receives A Hysterical Rejection Letter

Alex Falcone, a writer and comedian from Los Angeles, managed to turn a childhood dream into a very funny near-miss. After publishing a novel about a teen girl who dated a mummy, which Publisher’s Weekly called “unfortunate,” and launching a podcast about movies called Read It and Weep, he somehow got close to becoming an astronaut.

That is, close in the sense that NASA was never actually going to hand him a spacesuit. Still, the rejection letter he received was detailed, sharp, and hilarious enough to become its own punchline. It is hard not to wonder how entertaining the application must have been.

And the best part is that the story only gets stranger from there. Alex Falcone

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Alex has been dreaming about going to space since he was a kid, even though he is entirely unskilled. “I’m dumb, have no useful skills, am hard to get along with over long periods of time (I’ve ruined more than one road trip and multiple book clubs), and I do get motion sick even on short car rides,” he says. “I would be the worst candidate for NASA.”

It’s giving the same “career versus chaos” energy as choosing between a partner’s dream job and a rescue dog.

Alex Falcone

The rejection letter did crush his lifelong dream, but it didn’t break him. He was used to being rejected. “Man, I’ve received so many rejections for comedy festivals, writing jobs, and gigs. I used to tell myself, ‘Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team,’ but then I watched that documentary about him and realized he grew, like, a foot and worked his butt off after that, and I’m not doing either. So now I’ve got nothing to comfort me,” he says. 

Another explanation is that the rejection letter is fake, Alex wrote it himself. It was a joke. Well, we enjoyed it, but we are disappointed that NASA is not so amusing.

Want another messy rejection of “dreams first,” read about a friend quitting their job for a risky venture.