Cool science stuff

Shit, I forgot to watch. Busy at work.

 

It will be all over YouTube, Facebook, Twitter...

 

Man, when they kick someone off the board the moderators aren't messing around anymore.

 

I shed a tear. It was so cool. Too bad the core missed by 20 feet landing. Word is the barge may have moved in the water, hence the miss. Space X hasn't confirmed though.

 

My brother (who is decidedly NOT into science and tech stuff) saw this because whatever network he was watching cut into its regular programming to air the launch/landings. He called me, practically shouting into the phone: "DID YOU SEE THAT?! IT LOOKED LIKE A FUCKING SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE!"

 

SpaceX wins the month, and may be the year leader in the clubhouse.

 

There may be hope for mankind yet. I got chills watching a video, same as when the Apollo missions and Space Shuttles were launching. Really disappointed that we gave up on space exploration essentially for what 25 years?

 

Hard to quantify "giving up on space exploration," because NASA has had some amazing successes in unmanned missions. The Hubble telescope, the Mars rovers, the fly-by of Pluto, Galileo to Jupiter, for example. Perhaps the greatest legacy of all will be the two Voyager missions, which will outlast humanity in all likelihood.

But from a "moon fever" Mercury/Gemini/Apollo standpoint? Yesterday was the first time I can remember feeling that excited about a launch since standing on the front lawn of the house in Indian Harbour Beach and watching the likes of Shepard and Glenn get hurled in "tin cans." Where were you on July 20, 1969? That will always be a touchstone for Baby Boomers.

But NASA lost its way when it no longer had a "space race" to fund. Washington quickly lost interest in throwing more money at NASA, what with Watergate, stagflation, the gas crisis, double-digit interest rates and Iran to deal with. So NASA made the mistake of trying to do manned missions on the "safe" and cheap, with already-obsolete technology in reusable Shuttles. The new promise: "We'll make space flight routine!"

Well, that all changed on Jan. 28, 1986. And NASA never recovered. The agency got timid after Challenger, and scared shitless after Columbia. Other than the pretense of running an "astronaut corps," NASA pretty much is out of the game when it comes to flying humans. The Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena is where all the good stuff is going on.

That's why yesterday was thrilling, because that stillborn dream of reaching out past low-earth orbit is back in play.

 

There's another place doing great stuff on a lot of the missions you described above. Not JPL, not Space-X.

Thanks for posting this. I didn't have time to reply earlier today, but you hit the nail on the head!

 

1969, I was in first grade and certainly remember watching the lunar landing. Yeah its very dear to me.

I certainly did not mean to discount those unmanned missions; amazing.

But ultimately, IMHO, its about manned exploration because mankind needs to find other places to survive and thrive.

 

No slight intended. I knew what you were trying to say, and by all accounts, you're absolutely right. NASA dropped the ball after Apollo and wasted decades in low-earth programs -- although the ISS is pretty damn cool.

Looking back, I was incredibly fortunate to be right in the middle of the "Missile Man" era. Dad worked for an RCA subcontractor for Mercury and at Mission Control in Houston for Gemini. He was smart enough to see that NASA had no end game after Apollo and went to IBM in 1969.

He and Mom moved back to the Space Coast and he still meets up with guys who worked at the tracking station on Aruba (before there were satellites) and other RCA alumni. That he was in charge of a staff of 50 engineers at age 30 amazes me. I was still goofing off in radio at that point in my life.

NASA lost its focus. And a series of bad decisions by administrators more interested in sucking up to Congress than running the business of space made things worse.

I long for the day when KSC is actively engaged and not just a museum stop for cruise ships.

 

Cool stories. I commend your dad's vision. It was a different generation,when I was 30 I was so unclear about life I was thinking of going back to college to be an english teacher (after 3 years as a lawyer).