Like so many of us, one of my dreams as a child was to be an astronaut - to explore the wonders of space, watch as humans explored new worlds and to see mankind expand beyond this one lone planet. While my path ended up in a different direction I still have followed the wonders of our space program throughout the years and believe that so much potential lies in the stars.
Today is the last launch of our space shuttle program, with no plans for manned spaceflight to continue in the foreseeable future by NASA. A sad day for us all.
Let us hope someone else picks up the torch and helps us find those strange new worlds.
5 comments:
I have hope for people like Space-X and Blue Origin which are run by people the understand that if we do not get off this rock humanity is screwed and will die here.
Keep an eye on SpaceX. They're doing fantastic work for a fraction of the cost of NASA. American manned spaceflight is far from over; in fact, we may be headed into a new space age with multiple private companies getting into the game.
That said...as an unabashed NASA fanatic, it's still sad to see the shuttles go. Problems and all, they are beautiful ships, iconic of the American space program. You take one look at a shuttle and think, "That's a spaceship." One of the happiest moments of my life was standing 3 miles from pad 39A in Florida as Discovery lifted off for the last time. The sights (that plume of smoke, the rocket fire that was almost as bright as the sun) and sounds (shock waves you could feel in your ribcage) are something that are indelibly imprinted on my memory.
Farewell, shuttles: you had a good run.
(Incidentally, this song is very apropros when bidding the shuttles farewell: http://mariancall.bandcamp.com/track/good-old-girl)
Yep the whole album is good Joi, I've had it since she released it :D
Excellent! I heard her in concert in LA earlier this year, and her new album looks to be the best yet!
I was there live for the Space Shuttle Launch. It was the most amazing experience and very emotional at the same time. As a kid I had been in the Young Astronauts program and had helped create one of the computer training programs to prep astronauts for space missions back in the 80's. For me it was a very bittersweet moment to watch that last shuttle launch.
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