Imagine if instead of one astronaut, the entire Space Shuttle crew were Israelis:
The flight would leave an hour late.
Instead of counting down from ten to blastoff, they'd read T'filat HaDerech.
As the astronauts prepared to board the spacecraft, a young girl in a cheap navy jacket would ask them who had packed their luggage. She'd write their replies on her hand and nobody would understand why.
At least one of the astronauts would actually be plainclothes security.
The orbits around the Earth would take less time than 1 1/2 hours because the pilot would take a shortcut via a lower orbital level.
The Shuttle would tailgate the American Spacelab until it was able to pass it (on the right).
Each astronaut would have his or her own cellphone and spend most of the flight talking while they worked.
After two days in space, the Palestinian Authority would complain to the United Nations and CNN that the Space Shuttle was actually their property and had been for hundreds of years. The next day United Nations would pass a resolution confirming this.
Thomas Friedman would suggest that the Israelis give the Palestinians half of the Shuttle.
Every time the astronauts appeared on live television, Judge Cheshin would threaten to cut off their press conference. But it wouldn't matter because all of them, including Mission Control, would be talking at the same time so nobody would understand a word anyway.
The Shuttle would take two years for preparation – 6 months of training and a year and a half to argue who gets the seats.
The Shuttle would need double the amount of toilets. And the astronauts would insist on drinking every hour (anyway the drinks come free with the ticket).
The Shuttle would need special air filters to clear out all the sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
On the re-entry landing, the Shuttle would have problems with overweight luggage. Some of the overweight would be "souvenirs" pulled off of the Shuttle.
The astronauts would stand up to collect their things before the Shuttle came into the atmosphere. And they'd applaud at touchdown.
The Space Shuttle would look like a mess after the flight.
At least half of the astronauts would put in a request to apply the mileage to their Frequent Flyers account.
The longest part of the trip would be standing at Passport Control at Lod Airport.
And the taxi home would be the most dangerous part.