European Space Probe Arrives in Cheese Shop

16th December 2004

A European Space Probe destined for the Moon has finally arrived in orbit at a Cheese Shop. The Smart 1 lunar probe was launched in 2003 and has been in transit for 15 months, supposedly heading for the moon. However, when the scientists got the probe to take a photograph instead of seeing a baron lunar landscape, they were greeted by an image of Cheese Shop Assistant Keith Wilson, grinning inanely at the camera.

The European Space Agency immediately launched an investigation into the cause of the problem and discovered that a mix up had occurred when they ordered their space probe. It transpired the delivery firm had mixed up their probe with a large delivery of cheese. As a result, the European space agency inadvertently launched 150kg of Cheddar into orbit of planet Earth. Meanwhile, Keith Wilson pondered what to do with the $14million space probe he had had delivered.

“At first I thought it was something I had bought on eBay,” Mr Wilson explained, “I order a lot of weird stuff from there, you know, impulse buying. I lose track of what I order. I normally have stuff delivered to work because otherwise I miss the deliveries.

“In the end, I figured as I was not sure if it was mine or not I’d best leave it at work. So I used it as a chopping board to slice the cheese on.”

European officials have explained this is probably why their initial readings were widely accepted by the ‘moon-is-made-of-cheese’ society.

“Our initial readings suggested the moon was composed of composites of Edam, Red Leicester and Cheddar cheese.” European Space Official Chuck Hankman recounted, “At first we thought our equipment had developed a serious fault, however today’s news provides a slightly more rational explanation.”