One of the best things of living in central Florida. Walking to the park, where there is a clear easterly view, and watching the rockets. Better on TV this time, it was partly cloudy.
That and it connected so fast I thought it was a placeholder. It was just *boom* there. Audio levels were low at first, but as the count progressed they punched them up where they should be... no buffering, no muss, no fuss. Only problem was they didn't go back to the countdown clock at 31 seconds, they just announced it... I always like to see the handoff go over on the clock.
Each time it gets mentioned on the news, I'm too overwhelmed with anger that we're giving up on the space program to feel any other emotions about it.
Tell your children when / Time won't drive us down to dust again.
Maybe it'll apply to the next civilization. (Perhaps the cockroaches will evolve racial wisdom before they're ruined by personal cleverness.) This one is throwing its chances away for stock trader profit.
Some of us are holding onto the dream and fighting to build it. Our biggest problem is not the stockholder mentality. Our biggest problem is that every 4 years, some new head monkey gets the reigns of power and if he gives a hoot about nasa at all, he wants to put HIS thumbprint on it by cancelling what the previous head monkey decided to do and set his own course. Thus we never get to finish anything because we have a new bossman ever 4 years or so.
And that's how we came to fly 1/3 of a century old glass spaceships. Our history is littered with replacements that were abandoned -- Nasp, Venturestar and Ares come to the top of my mind.
Except we're not giving up on it per se. We're still launching satilites and probes and the like. Manned space flight was temporarily handed over to private enterprise to see what they can do.
why is it the world seems determined to ignore Dragon 9? We have a contract for Apollo-style, liquid-fueled manned space; the craft is undergoing testing RIGHT NOW.
Nevermind SpaceShipTwo (testing RIGHT NOW), SpaceShipThree (which won't just be tourism, but suborbital passenger service)...
Human spaceflight is not just NASA, much as they seem to want you to believe. (NOR SHOULD IT BE... take rant as read.) I firmly believe I will see images of footprints on Mars before I die. I would *like* to think I could put footprints of my very own on the Moon.
Get excited about space, yes. Please. We need all the enthusiasm we can get. But don't get *depressed*. We're not staying in LEO this time.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 01:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 02:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 02:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 02:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 02:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 03:34 pm (UTC)Tell your children when / Time won't drive us down to dust again.
Maybe it'll apply to the next civilization. (Perhaps the cockroaches will evolve racial wisdom before they're ruined by personal cleverness.) This one is throwing its chances away for stock trader profit.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 04:33 pm (UTC)And that's how we came to fly 1/3 of a century old glass spaceships. Our history is littered with replacements that were abandoned -- Nasp, Venturestar and Ares come to the top of my mind.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 06:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 06:30 pm (UTC)Nevermind SpaceShipTwo (testing RIGHT NOW), SpaceShipThree (which won't just be tourism, but suborbital passenger service)...
Human spaceflight is not just NASA, much as they seem to want you to believe. (NOR SHOULD IT BE... take rant as read.) I firmly believe I will see images of footprints on Mars before I die. I would *like* to think I could put footprints of my very own on the Moon.
Get excited about space, yes. Please. We need all the enthusiasm we can get. But don't get *depressed*. We're not staying in LEO this time.