Senator Garn on his way to the launchpad
April 12, 1985 — If you had the opportunity to go into orbit, chances are you'd want to spend it doing something other than throwing up. That's probably what former Utah Senator Jake Garn wanted too — but that's not what he got. As one of the purse-string-controlling members of the Appropriations Committee, a particularly good friend for NASA to have, Garn wangled himself a seat on a mission but learned firsthand that space travel is not for junketeers. So notorious were his bouts with space sickness that the comic strip Doonesbury nicknamed him "Barfin' Jake" Garn. The name stuck only in certain circles, but the reputation stuck everywhere. Unfortunately, so did the idea that any person — or at least one with a sturdier stomach than Garn's — could fly in space. A schoolteacher, say.