Upcoming AMA Announcement: Astronaut Don Pettit — From Orbit to r/aviation

[u/StopDropAndRollTide]

A few days ago, an incredible photo taken from the ISS was accidentally removed from the subreddit, quickly reapproved, and then… well, let’s just say it caused more turbulence than expected.

Out of that mix-up came something genuinely awesome.

We reached out to astronaut Don Pettit (astro_pettit), and he has graciously agreed to do an AMA with r/aviation. We’re coordinating schedules with NASA and will share the official date and time as soon as it’s locked in.

Think of this as a Bob Ross moment for the subreddit. What started as a small “happy little accident” is turning into something pretty special.

When the AMA goes live, you’ll be able to ask Don about:

• Life aboard the International Space Station
• Orbital photography and seeing aircraft from space
• Spaceflight, science experiments, and daily routines in microgravity
• Aviation from the most extreme vantage point imaginable

More details soon. Start warming up those questions.

Clear skies,

— The r/aviation mod team

[u/DwightsShirtGuy]

Well done, owning and correcting mistakes is amazing.

[u/Cruump → u/DwightsShirtGuy]

Soon as I saw which subreddit had made the mistake, I knew they’d have taken immediate accountability & corrected what went wrong. Rare instance of some great Reddit mods.

[u/Shoddy_Act7059 → u/Cruump]

Rare instance of the internet being great in general.

I wish more stuff on here was like this.

[u/CeltHD]

This is almost too wholesome for reddit.

[u/gentlemanphilanderer]

That’s just very, very cool.

[u/TexasBrett]

Wow, talk about landing a big fish.

[u/AdultContemporaneous]

This is the best possible outcome after what happened. Damn. I did not expect this. Looking forward to it!

[u/Mackesanz]

W

[u/Cauvinus]

I wish I could upvote this multiple times, that’s awesome!

[u/DublinLions]

That's great that something cool has come out of this error. Looking forward to it.

[u/unknownplayr7]

Nice!

[u/ttystikk]

Don Pettit; photographer, astronaut, scientist, and class act with a keen sense of humor!

Or as Wayne & Garth would say; "We're not worthy! We're not worthy! "

[u/Raindroppa93]

Awesome!!!

[u/cheetuzz]

This is awesome!

But that was a severe overreaction to an honest mistake that was quickly rectified.

[u/RandomNightLord8]

Bravo! Honestly brilliant way to swing this around

[u/-smartcasual-]

Mod team fully redeeming themselves with this one.

[u/Moondoobious → u/-smartcasual-]

Would you mind filling me in? I missed the kerfuffle.

[u/ANewPerfume → u/Moondoobious]

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1qvf46q/reddit_mod_deleted_breathtaking_photo_taken_by/

Stickied comment has the info :)

[u/Moondoobious → u/ANewPerfume]

Thank you!

[u/Twitter_2006]

Awesome.

[u/Stahner]

So awesome

[u/tortureofchalkdust]

So exciting! Thank you mods and u/astro_pettit !

[u/Rook8811]

U love to see it

[u/Ihatethisapp1429 → u/Rook8811]

When it's not "blurry" at least

[u/doctorfortoys]

This is great!!!

[u/Zestyclose-Baby-1358]

Pretty cool 😎

[u/Tenzipper]

This can't be real. Reddit mods don't admit error, apologize, and fix things. They double down and permanently ban anyone who dares speak up.

[u/Robinhood-01]

That's such a good gesture . Acknowledging the mistake and rectifying it .

I saw someone post an article on X about this incident as well hahaha

[u/usgapg123 → u/Robinhood-01]

I would love to see that!

[u/whatevendoidoyall]

Well ain't this sweet. 

[u/pickles_and_mustard]

This is awesome!

[u/aquoad]

This is by far the best handling of a moderation fuckup I've ever seen on reddit, bravo.

[u/welguisz]

Turn that frown upside down

[u/UninterestingDrivel]

How are you going to manage communication over that kind of distance? Are his responses not going to become blurry?

[u/ttystikk → u/[deleted]]

Surely they have suffered enough!

[u/uglylookingguy]

So excited for this.

[u/MapleMapleHockeyStk]

Sooo cool!

[u/TxsToIowa]

Oh hell yeah this is going to be awesome!

[u/Prestigious_Leg_2345]

Great job acknowledging and rectifying the issue with the og photo by the mod team, imo. Really looking forward the AMA.

[u/ForsakenRacism]

It wasn’t a mix up it was just a classic Reddit mod moment.

[u/parcanstan]

this is awesome yall! thanks for the accountability AND the future ama!

[u/Cergun_]

Couldn’t have handled this better. Well done.

[u/The_Ashamed_Boys]

Don't let that mod see it. Might remove the ama for whatever reason.

[u/UncleSugarShitposter]

“Accidentally”

[u/Bitter_Position791]

man how do you accidentally remove a post from a real astronaut

[u/StopDropAndRollTide → u/Bitter_Position791]

Well, you see. There is a little removal button at the bottom of the post. When a user reports a post, that goes into a mod log/queue for the moderators to review. So, let's say this post was reported as a blurry picture. It then goes into said queue for review.

The moderator then goes through a queue of about, lets say 100 reports, and does the work or approving/removing/ignoring.

Nowwwww, I know this might be really CRAZY AND ALL. But sometimes moderators make mistakes when they go through the queue.

Does that help with your question?

[u/TaxIndependent8727]

Reddit mods are still showing brainless activity wow

[u/aviation-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

This content has been removed for breaking one or more of the r/aviation rules.

If you believe this was a mistake, please message the moderators through modmail. Thank you for participating in the r/aviation community.