Thank You For Flying SpaceX

Today, a United States space capsule touched down in the Gulf of Mexico, completing a journey that started some two months ago.

The last time a United States capsule touched down in water was 45 years ago (July 24, 1975, to be exact).  Many of my readers weren't even alive then.

For a time, we used space shuttles flown by Americans, but the program had two disasters - two too many, and at least one partially caused by cost cutting.

Then, for many years, our former enemy, Russia, had to take us back and forth.

Now, our space exploration can finally continue, in a joint partnership between NASA and private industry.  When the astronauts touched down into the Gulf, a ground person said "Thank you for flying SpaceX."

It reminded me of the old "Thank you for flying Lufthansa" joke about a plane that had to ditch in the ocean, and which I won't repeat here.

But you do have to admire pilots for their absolute cool.  If you have a few minutes, check out this video.

Back to SpaceX, what makes this even sweeter is that one of the two astronauts in the capsule, Doug Hurley, grew up in my local area.

What is a bit sobering is that the recovery crew all had to quarantine for two weeks and were tested for COVID-19 before being allowed to participate in the recovery.  It is good and right that we continue space exploration during this time, but these astronauts, as fate would have it, had to parachute into a corona virus hotspot.

I hope this program does not get sidetracked while we on Earth try to figure the pandemic out.

Preserving Lunar History

Museums serve an important purpose - preserving history.  It does seem strange, though, to visit a museum to observe what happened during your lifetime.

Today, my spouse and I (briefly) visited a museum in Binghamton, New York called TechWorks that celebrates our region's contributions to technology. Among other things, the flight simulator for Apollo 11 was built here. Now housed by the Smithsonian, it was available for view.

It's amazing what those designers had to work with, especially as we could only guess what conditions on the moon were like.  Some were afraid the lunar module would sink into hundreds of feet thick lunar dust, for example.

So I had to ask this question:  has anyone ever been back to the Apollo 11 landing site?  The short answer is "no" although many of us alive in 1969 are going there today in memory.

What would we find if we revisited the site?  We have a good idea, and it's interesting. 

The flag planted by the late Neil Armstrong is still there, although we know it was knocked down when the lunar module took off.  It is bleached white, we speculate.

There are even pictures taken from above the site, but you can't see much.

Have you wondered how the future will view the moon landing?  Futurama, a (sometimes) wonderful satirical cartoon, wondered, too. Fry (the man on the right) is from our modern era.  He was accidentally frozen and defrosted in 3000, and the series proceeds from there with his adventures.  Here, he visits the moon landing site with a resident of 3000 AD to find...well, watch and see.

So we really need to be careful speculating, because, right now we couldn't get there ourselves even if we tried.

In July of 2011 I wrote a blog post when the United States ended its space shuttle program. I've updated it some and added some more commentary.

The United States space program ended in July 2011 or so I thought.

I was a child of the Space Race.  In October of 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched.  Ever hear of it? Or the Soviet Union?  This may be history to you if you are young enough, so a quick refresher.

The Soviet Union was a "union" of Russia and a number of other nearby countries.  Their government was "communist", committed to the destruction of the capitalist system - and our country.  Or, so we were told.  Those were scary times.  When I was a toddler, being called a Communist could be enough to cause someone to lose their job.  There were special congressional hearings.  Blacklists.

When the Soviets launched the first satellite in October of 1957, our country was thrown into a panic.  We needed to get our children educated in the sciences, and quickly, so we could get into space with our satellite before the Communists took space over.   This drive accelerated even more quickly when the Soviets put the first man into space in 1961.



To make a long story short, we made it to the moon first.  Several more missions got to the moon (the last one in 1972) and then in the 1970's we totally changed direction.  We decided to have a program with partially disposable space crafts.  We haven't been to the moon since that decision.

In the middle of all this, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.  Probably a lot of the urgency disappeared with the Soviets.  We no longer had an enemy to compete with, at least a Russian enemy.

Then we realized it was way too expensive for the government to keep up the space program.  Private industry would have to take over, and that is part of the reason for what happened today.  The entire story is complicated, and this is a very shallow telling of the tale.  But the bottom line was, we lost our ability to get our own astronauts into space with our own equipment.

For the past few years, who have we depended on to get our astronauts to the International Space Station?

The Russians.

Now, that's irony.

Today's 50th anniversary of the moon landing is an important one. It may be the last major anniversary where anyone who walked on the moon is still alive.  As of this week, only four such men are left. Since 2011, there are glimmers of hope that we will return to space .  Space X and Boeing have been trying, but their efforts seem to be plagued by delays.

President Trump wants us back on the moon by 2024. He met with the two surviving Apollo 11 astronauts yesterday (first man on the moon Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012.).

But if we ever get there, will the original site be preserved in some way?  Actually, a bill was introduced in Congress on July 16, the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11.

Let's just hope that Futurama isn't too prophetic.

Nobody's Gone to the Moon (in Years)

We are beginning a countdown to the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing and walk on the moon.  We'll be awash in nostalgia for the next week.

I wrote most of the following (with some edits, additions/updating, and combining) on July 19, 2009 and July 20, 2009.  It was the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the moon.

Where was I when humankind landed on the moon? I was 16 when it happened.

I was in midtown Manhattan, with my Dad, at a space exhibit. I had followed the space program from the moment I was old enough to. I don't think I truly remember Sputnik, but I remember our country shooting dogs and monkeys into space. I remember Telstar, I remember being amazed at a trans oceanic broadcast of - The Today Show?

Then came the manned flights. In that day of no  24 hour news channels, the early flights, only several hours long, were covered in their entirety by the networks. They were big news items.

I remember following all the manned flights leading up to Apollo 11 on television. I was a great science fiction fan from around the age of 10, too, and it all tied in.

 I took lots of pictures at the exhibit.

 I stayed up to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, along with millions of other Americans.

Why are we so fascinated by the First Moon Walk on this particular anniversary?

In 2009, I speculated that part of it was knowing that this may be the last 10-year anniversary where all three astronauts of Apollo 11 may be alive? (after all, Neil Armstrong was78). Now, in 2019, Neil has left us but Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, is still alive.  A total of four men who walked on the moon are still with us.  The youngest of them (Charles Duke) is 82  He was supposed to visit the place where I watched the Great American Eclipse in August of 2017 but we never saw him.

 Is it a sense of what may have been (why did we abandon manned space missions out to the moon and beyond?) Or is it because we have so many Internet "toys"that allow us to follow the mission, minute by minute, complete with astronaut updates on Twitter?

If only I knew where my photos were, I would scan and post them on this blog. Yes, I took black and white (of course!) photos of the TV screen at home. My Dad and I stayed up late to watch Neil Armstrong take his first steps.

However I never thought of taking pictures of us watching TV. That would have been interesting.

What if we had had the Internet then? Well we could say that about any time of history. Better in some ways that our memories are frozen in those faded photos and home movies. No matter how dated they seem to our children.

Eight months after the moon landing I would go on a trip with other high school seniors to study a total solar eclipse on the grounds of East Carolina University. (Greenville, North Carolina) I have been blessed - I have seen three total solar eclipses in my lifetime.

But who could have guessed what became of our space program?  My son (in his late 20's) and I discussed this when we saw each other on the 4th of July.

Who would have thought the last moon landing would take place in December of 1972?  Or that we would get to the point of needing to depend on the Russians (the country we were competing against in the "space race" to get into space?

I was in college when humankind last walked on the moon.  Now I am a senior citizen.

We have self driving phones and computers that fit in the palms of our hands (aka smartphones) but we can't get to the moon.

What will it take to get a manned space program (not just to the International Space Station) truly started up again?

It Was Not Supposed to End Like This

Another astronaut gone.

John Young, who flew in space six times, walked on the moon, and commanded the first space shuttle, is dead at the age of 87.  He had a 42 year career with NASA.

The original space explorers are almost gone.  It's time for me to write another tribute.

Young originally flew in the third Gemini flight, and smuggled a corned beef sandwich onboard. (NASA was not amused.)

He helped with the rescue of Apollo 13, the disabled spacecraft that was able to return to earth 

He almost became the first man to walk on the moon twice.

Here was a tribute I wrote in December, 2016 when famed astronaut John Glenn died.

We study the first words spoken on the moon, by astronaut Neil Armstrong.  But how many of us remember the last words spoken on the moon?  Quoting:

"...America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow," astronaut Gene Cernan said. "And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus- Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."

Except that we never did return.  And, of the twelve men who walked on the moon, only five are left now.  Cernan died in January 2017.  Now, Young has joined him.

Thinking of Cernan's quote, peace and hope seem to be in short supply nowadays.

Few of us could have dreamed of what happened to the space program.  Americans can't even get into space on their own anymore.  We have to pay the Russians, although that may not be true for much longer.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

The last of the original seven astronauts gone.  Last year, the last man to walk on the moon.  Now, still another pioneer.   Five left to go.  The youngest of them is 82.

RIP.

Day 7 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. #blogboost

Voyager and Star Trek the Next Generation

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager I, to explore the outer planets.  Voyager I is still active, and still reporting back to NASA with its data.  In fact, NASA had run a contest for the best under 60-character message to send to Voyager, and the message was read by Captain Kirk....I mean, actor William Shatner.

"We offer friendship across the stars..  You are not alone." was the message.

So, what does this have to do with a children's garden at the Discovery Center in Binghamton, New York?

We are raising a generation of children who, if they survive their parents trying to destroy our planet, may well be the generation who makes contact with non-Earth life.

And how would they have learned?

Maybe through a garden that teaches friendship...

Or to welcome others into your life?

Children who have learned to measure themselves?

...while they stop and take a seat?

They would have learned to stop and sniff the flowers.

And admire the hydrangeas.

I've blogged several times about the ending of our space program - at least, as we know it. 

But maybe, just maybe, our children and grandchildren will be the ones who walk on other planets, exploring distant planets and solar systems.  That is, if we, their parents and grandparents, allow themselves to grow up by not blowing up the world.

I have to be optimistic, though, that we will make it and have a next generation of Voyager, and, maybe, one day, a real Star Trek. 

Last But Not Least

"Don't count yourself out - you never know what fate has in store."  - Eugene Cernan, in 2016.

Eugene Cernan died yesterday, surrounded by his family.   He was 82.

Didn't we just do this in December?

Sometimes, it is important to be last.

Eugene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon. 

What kind of man was he?  
Eugene Cernan left his daughter's initial in the moon's dust before he climbed on board his ship for the return to Earth.


We study the first words spoken on the moon, by astronaut Neil Armstrong.  But how many of us remember the last words?  Quoting:

"...America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow," Cernan said. "And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus- Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."

Except that we never did return.  And, of the twelve men who walked on the moon, only six are left now.

Except that both peace and hope seem to be in short supply nowadays.

Except that few of us could dream of what happened to the space program.  Americans can't even get into space on their own anymore.  We have to pay the Russians.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

The last of the original seven astronauts gone.  Now, the last man to walk on the moon.

RIP.

Day 17 of #blogboost the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

The Last Man

John Glenn died December 8 at the age of 95.

On Tuesday, February 20, 1962, I sat with others in a classroom in a Bronx classroom and listened to John Glenn orbiting the Earth (or so my faulty memory tells me). 

This was the first time any American had accomplished that feat.  In those days, when someone was shot into space, everyone stopped what they were doing (as much as possible) and listened to the event on radio or TV.

It was the age of heroes, men and women both.   These rockets, besides taking people into space, were also somewhat prone to blowing up.  But when they didn't, these brave men rode into destiny.  Watch, if you have the time, this six minute video of John Glenn in orbit.

I invite you to read the obituary the New York Times wrote for John Glenn (link in my first paragraph). 

His heroism didn't end with that 1962 first orbit mission.  He returned to space - when he was 77 years old.

Glenn sold his private plane when he was 90.  He and his wife couldn't make it inside anymore.

They are all gone now, the first group of seven men chosen so many years ago to take the United States into space.  Glenn was the last man standing.

What has come of our space program?  I invite you to read this post from August 25, 2012, when the first man on the moon died.

The Last Giant Leap?

 Late on July 20, 1969 I sat transfixed in my living room with my father at my side.  I was in high school so quite old enough to understand what I was seeing.  Together, we watched a grainy pictures on a black and white TV, a picture I never would have believed in m wildest drams growing up.  Such things were not possible.

A man in a bulky suit edged out of a craft, and his voice crackled on the TV.  He stepped on the ground.

"One small step for man.  One giant leap for mankind."
 
That man, Neil Armstrong, died today.

No, I am not talking about Lance Armstrong.  Too many jokes recently about people who confuse the two men.

As far as I know, Neil Armstrong never won a bicycle race.  Come to think of it, Lance has now won several fewer than just a few days ago.  But I digress.

 No. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.  Today, when we can Skpe friends halfway around the world, when we can email and Facebook instantaneously with people all over Earth - we haven't sent a woman or a man to the moon since the 1970's.

I am sad for so many reasons.  Maybe it is because I realize that many people  really don't understand what happened that day in 1969, or care.  We have lost our will and no longer look to the stars.  We now depend on the Russians, our former enemies, to get us into space.


We have technology now years and years ahead of the technology of the first Star Trek TV series, just as one example.  Many of us own smart phones that Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock would have envied. True, we don't have transporters or starships.

But we don't have much of a space program, either.

In 1969, who would have thought?

Our hero astronauts of the 1960's are aging.  One day they will be dead.

No more giant leaps.  No more small steps.  

Unless?

The people must want the space program to continue.  And right now, they don't.

Times are tough.  We look inward, not outward.  Perhaps that is what happens when times are tough.  But I don't know about that.  We finished the Capital Rotunda in Washington, DC during the American Civil War.  We built the Empire State Building in New York City (so in the news after yesterday's nearby shooting) during the Great Depression.

I truly hope we have not lost our passion for discovering the unknown.  Hard times never stopped us before.

Only time will tell.

Do you remember the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs?  Or is it just history/meaningless history to you?

Throwback Thursday - It Wasn't Supposed to End Like This

July 20 (or 21st, depending on which time zone you lived in) was the 47th anniversary of mankind's first steps on the moon by astronaut Neil Armstrong- unless you are someone like my father's father, who went to his grave thinking it was a Hollywood fabrication.

My personal memories, growing up in the Bronx? That day, July 20, I went with my Dad to see a space exhibit in midtown Manhattan - and late that night, we watched Neil Armstrong take his step on a flickering black and white TV picture in our Bronx apartment.

Who would have expected the space program would end (as far as I am concerned, it has ended) the way it did?  With a whimper? With the United States dependent on other countries to propel us into space?  It's true, NASA doesn't say the space program has ended.  Not publicly, anyway.


Now, also, there is Space X.

Is there hope?  We'll have to see.

In July of 2011, I wrote this blog post, and I would like to repeat it today.

Fly Me to the Moon....

I interrupt the normal programming of this blog to bring you this special announcement.

The United States space program ended today.

Today has left a large hole in my heart.  And perhaps one in our country's heart.

I was a child of the Space Race.  In October of 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched.  Ever hear of it? Or the Soviet Union?  Well...

The Soviet Union was a "union" of Russia and a number of other nearby countries.  Their government was "communist", committed to the destruction of the capitalist system - and our country.  Or, so we were told.  Those were scary times.  When I was a toddler, being called a Communist could be enough to cause someone to lose their job.  There were special congressional hearings.  Blacklists.

The Soviets had "The Bomb".   We and they fought what was called the "Cold War".  If they won and took us over, all would be lost.  The Soviets were totally evil- that is what I was taught, as a schoolchild growing up in the 1950's and early 60's.

When the Soviets launched the first satellite in October of 1957, our country was thrown into a panic.  We needed to get our children educated in the sciences, and quickly, so we could get into space with our satellite before the Communists took space over.   This drive accelerated even more quickly when the Soviets put the first man into space in 1961.

We as a country committed ourselves to reach the moon in a speech given by President Kennedy in May of 1961. 

50 years ago, we decided to go to the moon.  We would beat the Soviets there.  We knew they were trying to get there, too.

Competition is the heart of the capitalist system.

I saw some of the various launches in school.  Others, on our black and white TV at home.  First, we blasted one man into sub-orbit.  Then, one man into orbit.  Then, into many orbits.

And then, the Soviets took a walk in space. So we had to also.

To make a long story short, we made it to the moon first.  Several more missions got to the moon and then in the 1970's we totally changed direction.  We decided to have a program with partially disposable space crafts.  We haven't been to the moon since that decision and, in fact, no one else has been, either.

In the middle of all this, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.  Probably a lot of the urgency disappeared with the Soviets.  We no longer had an enemy to compete with.

And then we realized it was way too expensive for the government to keep up the space program.  Private industry would have to take over, and that is part of the reason for what happened today.  The entire story is complicated, and this is a very shallow telling of the tale.

Today, several generations know of the space program mainly for Tang, and freeze dried ice cream.  But, in reality, it enriched our lives in so many ways we can't even imagine - everything from MRI technology to cell phones (have you ever seen the first Star Trek series?) to - well, there is an entire NASA Spinoff website that explains this.

Think about this.  We won the space race, right?  And now -we won't have a way to get into space on our own, for now.  We will have to depend on....

The Russians.

Now, that's irony.

We can ask  "so who cares?  Why is it important to keep exploring space?  (No, the answer isn't going to be to fight the space aliens traveling right now to our planet to conquer us....but who knows, maybe they are.)  No, the answer is not about being able to resist our future space overlords.  (Or...just think of this nightmarish thought - terrorists launch a satellite....)

It has a lot to do with the human spirit.  Humans are explorers.  The drive is built into us.  In every generation are born people without fear (or maybe, people without common sense).  The wider our horizons, the wider our thinking.  Our acceptance of new ideas, our flexibility, our ability to roll with change, depends on this. 

Will we lose our spirit?  If we do, our country is lost.

I fear this has already happened to our country, and we must fight it.

I rarely write serious blog posts, but this is one of them.

Be it by government, or be it by private industry, we can't give up space.

After posting this, I read an awesome post on the subject.  I am linking to it, so you can read it too.  (This blog is no longer active, but she has a different blog, also worth reading.)

What are your memories, if any, of the space program?

Throwback Thursday - Challenger

On Friday, January 28, 2011, I wrote the blog post "Another 25 Years Ago Moment".

Now, five years later, it is the 30th anniversary of the defining moment for an entire generation.  For me, who grew up with the space program, it is a sad anniversary in so many ways.

On January 28, 1986 the U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded, on live TV, 73 seconds after its launch.  All seven crew members, including a civilian teacher, were killed.  Tragically, the explosion was caused by an O Ring failure - something so small caused something so big.

Today, for NASA, it is a Day of Remembrance - a day when NASA remembers all those who gave their lives for the cause of the exploration of space.  A special website has been put up.

At one time, the space race was an extension of what we called the Cold War between the United States and the then-Soviet Union.

Now, the United States pays Russia to transport our astronauts to the International Space Station.

But some of the students of the civilian teacher who died in the Challenger disaster now are teachers themselves. 

Would they have gone into teaching if they hadn't seen their teacher die, live on TV?  I wonder.

And I wonder if our space program will ever truly take off again, as so many of us thought it would all those years ago.

As I said below, time flies when you are having fun (or not).

Here's my post from 2011.

Another 25 years ago Moment - Challenger

There are two events linked together in my mind and heart.

January 21, 1986:  the death of my father.  And, a week later, the explosion of the Challenger.

I wasn't a member of the generation which had this event as their "defining moment" but I can still remember exactly where I was.  I was in an office in Fayetteville, Arkansas, that Tuesday, just having returned from burying my father out on Long Island.  I was at work, when one of my co workers announced he had just spoken to one of our customers, and he relayed the news to us.

It was the first time I had felt anything in a week.  Simply, I had been numb since getting that phone call that my father had passed away in a Brooklyn emergency room.  This was the first thing I felt since that phone call.

The space program had meant so much to me growing up.  I became a big fan of science fiction - for some years, in fact, it was all I read.  So the shock penetrated through the numbness.  Now I was really surrounded by death.

It is so hard to imagine that 25 years have passed since that day, and here we are, with the manned space program soon to end.  25 years later, and an astronaut by the name of Mark Kelly ponders whether he will fly in that last mission, because his wife lies in a rehab center, survivor of an attempted assassination.

Two 25 year commemorations in a week.  And to think I was a teenager when we had the 25th anniversary of the end of World War II.  Time flies when you are having fun (or not).

It Wasn't Supposed to End Like This

July 20, or 21 (depending on where you live) was the 45th anniversary of mankind's first steps on the moon by astronaut Neil Armstrong- unless you are someone like my father's father, who went to his grave thinking it was a Hollywood fabrication.


Neil Armstrong dead some two years now, never lived to see this anniversary.   Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, waging a social media campaign.

My personal memories? That day, July 20, I went with my Dad to see a space exhibit in midtown Manhattan - and late that night, we watched Neil Armstrong take his step on a flickering black and white TV picture in our Bronx apartment.

Who would have expected the space program would end (in my mind, it's ended) the way it did?  With a whimper?

In July of 2011, I wrote this blog post, and I would like to repeat it today.

Fly Me to the Moon....

I interrupt the normal programming of this blog to bring you this special announcement.

The United States space program ended today.

Today has left a large hole in my heart.  And perhaps one in our country's heart.

I was a child of the Space Race.  In October of 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched.  Ever hear of it? Or the Soviet Union?  Well...

The Soviet Union was a "union" of Russia and a number of other nearby countries.  Their government was "communist", committed to the destruction of the capitalist system - and our country.  Or, so we were told.  Those were scary times.  When I was a toddler, being called a Communist could be enough to cause someone to lose their job.  There were special congressional hearings.  Blacklists.

The Soviets had "The Bomb".   We and they fought what was called the "Cold War".  If they won and took us over, all would be lost.  The Soviets were totally evil- that is what I was taught, as a schoolchild growing up in the 1950's and early 60's.

When the Soviets launched the first satellite in October of 1957, our country was thrown into a panic.  We needed to get our children educated in the sciences, and quickly, so we could get into space with our satellite before the Communists took space over.   This drive accelerated even more quickly when the Soviets put the first man into space in 1961.

We as a country committed ourselves to reach the moon in a speech given by President Kennedy in May of 1961. 

50 years ago, we decided to go to the moon.  We would beat the Soviets there.  We knew they were trying to get there, too.

Competition is the heart of the capitalist system.

I saw some of the various launches in school.  Others, on our black and white TV at home.  First, we blasted one man into sub-orbit.  Then, one man into orbit.  Then, into many orbits.

And then, the Soviets took a walk in space. So we had to also.

To make a long story short, we made it to the moon first.  Several more missions got to the moon and then in the 1970's we totally changed direction.  We decided to have a program with partially disposable space crafts.  We haven't been to the moon since that decision and, in fact, no one else has been, either.

In the middle of all this, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.  Probably a lot of the urgency disappeared with the Soviets.  We no longer had an enemy to compete with.

And then we realized it was way too expensive for the government to keep up the space program.  Private industry would have to take over, and that is part of the reason for what happened today.  The entire story is complicated, and this is a very shallow telling of the tale.

Today, several generations know of the space program mainly for Tang, and freeze dried ice cream.  But, in reality, it enriched our lives in so many ways we can't even imagine - everything from MRI technology to cell phones (have you ever seen the first Star Trek series?) to - well, there is an entire NASA Spinoff website that explains this.

Think about this.  We won the space race, right?  And now -we won't have a way to get into space on our own, for now.  We will have to depend on....

The Russians.

Now, that's irony.

We can ask  "so who cares?  Why is it important to keep exploring space?  (No, the answer isn't going to be to fight the space aliens traveling right now to our planet to conquer us....but who knows, maybe they are.)  No, the answer is not about being able to resist our future space overlords.  (Or...just think of this nightmarish thought - terrorists launch a satellite....)

It has a lot to do with the human spirit.  Humans are explorers.  The drive is built into us.  In every generation are born people without fear (or maybe, people without common sense).  The wider our horizons, the wider our thinking.  Our acceptance of new ideas, our flexibility, our ability to roll with change, depends on this. 

Will we lose our spirit?  If we do, our country is lost.

I fear this has already happened to our country, and we must fight it.

I rarely write serious blog posts, but this is one of them.

Be it by government, or be it by private industry, we can't give up space.

After posting this, I read an awesome post on the subject.  I am linking to it, so you can read it too.

What are your memories, if any, of the space program?

Thankful Friday Part 1 - I Pay It Forward

Ladies and gentlemen, I am a blogger as good as her word.

Yesterday, I promised that I would give shout outs to bloggers whose blogs I enjoy reading, and also shout outs to some of my loyal followers.  I will require absolutely nothing from the bloggers I am going to write about today, and in the coming weeks, because

1.  It's about time I recognized you; and
2.  If I join up with NaNoWriMo and write my Rebellious Memoir (aka my Chicken Memoir) in November, I will need to write some posts in advance. (and if you want to join me, my screen name is RamblinWritr).

But what I will ask - and no obligation, here!, is that you pay it forward.  Recognize people in your life who you cherish. Bloggers, family members, teachers, loved ones. 

But, don't feel obligated!  Well, no, maybe feel obligated a LITTLE.   (Ulterior motive alert!)

Here's my first set of nominations for the AM Truly Thanks You So Pay It Forward award.

First, two bloggers who have nominated me for the famous Liebster Blog Award,proving that both bloggers are bloggers of exquisite taste and impeccable judgement.

Roy A. Ackerman, whose posts will never disappoint you.

Tia Bach, Author. She's - well, an author.  And a d**m good one, too.
 
Next, the woman who twisted my arm  convinced me I should enter my very first blog challenge - without her I'm about 99% certain I would have quit blogging a long time ago. So, now you know who to blame for my blog.  She doesn't blog near enough, and I sure wish she did.  Billie Noakes.

Next, she thinks she's just an Average Woman - but she, in reality, is anything but.  She's actually an Average Superwoman! Another blogger who doesn't blog enough.  No pressure, though, Sandi!

And last but not least, this last name is not a blogger shout out but rather a moment of tribute for someone I admired when I was young. I mourn yesterday's death of Scott Carpenter, one of the original Mercury astronauts and the second American to orbit the Earth.  Yes, I'm old enough to remember the Mercury program and the anxious moments we spent when Carpenter's capsule overshot its landing site by some 250 miles. 

Ninety-two year old former Mercury astronaut, John Glenn, is the last living Mercury astronaut. The mortality that was so distant in my youth creeps up.

Once  again, too, I can mourn the end of our space program.

On that day in 1962 I never dreamed there would be an Internet, or such a thing as blogging.  Perhaps, in a small way, Scott Carpenter led us to the world we live in now.


Godspeed, Scott Carpenter.

A Little Attention to Detail

There is a wonderful site called Despair.com.  They sell a poster about mistakes.  It shows a sinking ship that looks like the Titanic sinking, with this caption:

It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

The same can apply to disasters.  In too many disasters, some attention to detail could have prevented the disaster, or made it less deadly.

Sometimes we don't learn from disaster.  Sometimes we do.

Today is the 10th anniversary of the breaking apart and destruction of the space shuttle Columbia, during its reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.  A wing was damaged during liftoff.  A chunk of foam insulation broke off and hit a wing panel.

They didn't think it was fatally seriously.  They were wrong.  Seven astronauts never returned to Earth alive.

Now, the recovered debris sits silently as part of a special program at the Kennedy Space Center - its continuing mission, to educate.  

It educates those who are able to attend.  They find out why the accident happened, what we learned, and what changes were made.

The Columbia's original mission was an educational mission, so in a way, its destruction earned it a kind of immortality - and it continues to educate, 10 years later.  But its mission has changed - it now teaches the lessons of its own destruction:

-Don't assume something that looks minor is minor

-Always pay attention to detail

-Good can come from bad

The space program (more or less) has ended.  But the educational mission of the Kennedy Space Center, and the shuttle Columbia, continues.

The Last Giant Leap?

 Late on July 20, 1969 I sat transfixed in my living room with my father at my side.  I was in high school so quite old enough to understand what I was seeing.  Together, we watched a grainy pictures on a black and white TV, a picture I never would have believed in m wildest drams growing up.  Such things were not possible.

A man in a bulky suit edged out of a craft, and his voice crackled on the TV.  He stepped on the ground.

"One small step for man.  One giant leap for mankind."
 
That man, Neil Armstrong, died today.


No, I am not talking about Lance Armstrong.  Too many jokes recently about people who confuse the two men.

As far as I know, Neil Armstrong never won a bicycle race.  Come to think of it, Lance has now won several fewer than just a few days ago.  But I digress.

 No. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.  Today, when we can Skpe friends halfway around the world, when we can email and Facebook instantaneously with people all over Earth - we haven't sent a woman or a man to the moon since the 1970's.

I am sad for so many reasons.  Maybe it is because I realize that many people  really don't understand what happened that day in 1969, or care.  We have lost our will and no longer look to the stars.  We now depend on the Russians, our former enemies, to get us into space.


We have technology now years and years ahead of the technology of the first Star Trek TV series, just as one example.  Many of us own smart phones that Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock would have envied. True, we don't have transporters or starships.


But we don't have much of a space program, either.


In 1969, who would have thought?

Our hero astronauts of the 1960's are aging.  One day they will be dead.

No more giant leaps.  No more small steps.  

Unless?

The people must want the space program to continue.  And right now, they don't.

Times are tough.  We look inward, not outward.  Perhaps that is what happens when times are tough.  But I don't know about that.  We finished the Capital Rotunda in Washington, DC during the American Civil War.  We built the Empire State Building in New York City (so in the news after yesterday's nearby shooting) during the Great Depression.

I truly hope we have not lost our passion for discovering the unknown.  Hard times never stopped us before.

Only time will tell.

Do you remember the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs?  Or is it just history/meaningless history to you?

Fly Me to the Moon....

I interrupt the normal programming of this blog to bring you this special announcement.

The United States space program ended today.

Today has left a large hole in my heart.  And perhaps one in our country's heart.

I was a child of the Space Race.  In October of 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched.  Ever hear of it? Or the Soviet Union?  Well...

The Soviet Union was a "union" of Russia and a number of other nearby countries.  Their government was "communist", committed to the destruction of the capitalist system - and our country.  Or, so we were told.  Those were scary times.  When I was a toddler, being called a Communist could be enough to cause someone to lose their job.  There were special congressional hearings.  Blacklists.

The Soviets had "The Bomb".   We and they fought what was called the "Cold War".  If they won and took us over, all would be lost.  The Soviets were totally evil- that is what I was taught, as a schoolchild growing up in the 1950's and early 60's.

When the Soviets launched the first satellite in October of 1957, our country was thrown into a panic.  We needed to get our children educated in the sciences, and quickly, so we could get into space with our satellite before the Communists took space over.   This drive accelerated even more quickly when the Soviets put the first man into space in 1961.

We as a country committed ourselves to reach the moon in a speech given by President Kennedy in May of 1961. 

50 years ago, we decided to go to the moon.  We would beat the Soviets there.  We knew they were trying to get there, too.

Competition is the heart of the capitalist system.

I saw some of the various launches in school.  Others, on our black and white TV at home.  First, we blasted one man into sub-orbit.  Then, one man into orbit.  Then, into many orbits.

And then, the Soviets took a walk in space. So we had to also.

To make a long story short, we made it to the moon first.  Several more missions got to the moon and then in the 1970's we totally changed direction.  We decided to have a program with partially disposable space crafts.  We haven't been to the moon since that decision and, in fact, no one else has been, either.

In the middle of all this, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.  Probably a lot of the urgency disappeared with the Soviets.  We no longer had an enemy to compete with.

And then we realized it was way too expensive for the government to keep up the space program.  Private industry would have to take over, and that is part of the reason for what happened today.  The entire story is complicated, and this is a very shallow telling of the tale.

Today, several generations know of the space program mainly for Tang, and freeze dried ice cream.  But, in reality, it enriched our lives in so many ways we can't even imagine - everything from MRI technology to cell phones (have you ever seen the first Star Trek series?) to - well, there is an entire NASA Spinoff website that explains this.

Think about this.  We won the space race, right?  And now -we won't have a way to get into space on our own, for now.  We will have to depend on....

The Russians.

Now, that's irony.

We can ask  "so who cares?  Why is it important to keep exploring space?  (No, the answer isn't going to be to fight the space aliens traveling right now to our planet to conquer us....but who knows, maybe they are.)  No, the answer is not about being able to resist our future space overlords.  (Or...just think of this nightmarish thought - terrorists launch a satellite....)

It has a lot to do with the human spirit.  Humans are explorers.  The drive is built into us.  In every generation are born people without fear (or maybe, people without common sense).  The wider our horizons, the wider our thinking.  Our acceptance of new ideas, our flexibility, our ability to roll with change, depends on this. 

Will we lose our spirit?  If we do, our country is lost.

I fear this has already happened to our country, and we must fight it.

I rarely write serious blog posts, but this is one of them.

Be it by government, or be it by private industry, we can't give up space.

LATE BREAKING ADDITION:  After posting this, I read an awesome post on the subject.  I am linking to it, so you can read it too.