Submitted for Vampires Everywhere Challenge #1: Sci-fi by WattVampires

Bloodthirst is the main reason why you don't see many vampire astronauts. Fortunately, ISRO's psychologists believe I'm not like other vampires. That's why I'm here right now, tethered by an umbilical cable to the Vishnu space station on an extra-vehicular activity (EVA).

Bloodthirst aside, vampires make great mission specialists for EVAs.

We're used to flying and levitating on earth—we don't get "space sickness" from the zero gravity environment.

Cosmic ray exposure? Negligible health risk for someone who's undead.

I don't even have to camp out in the airlock before the mission. When you're a reanimated corpse in a low-pressue spacesuit, you never worry about getting the bends from decompression.

I took my doses of freeze-dried synthetic plasma before leaving the Svarga airlock module. My fangs pierced the unfamiliar congealed wafer; it dissolved into crimson liquid in my mouth. Tastes close enough to the real thing— they even put in a bioengineered hemoglobin that gives it the same kind of flavor that humans enjoy in rare steak. A lone red droplet spilled through my lips, floating off into the antiseptic cabin before I could wipe it away.

Now Operation Ganesha could begin: manually removing space debris that's obstructing Vishnu's sensors.