TURNING THE LAST PAGE IN A PHASE OF HISTORY

photo courtesy NASA

Here they are---all decked out and ready for the very last manned near earth flight in our famous shuttle program. After their launch, which is scheduled for July 8, there simply won't be any U.S. manned flight capability.  After being a leader in manned space flight ever since John Glenn made the first U.S. manned space flight, the U.S. will be out the near earth flight business.  Oh, we will still be sending astronauts to the ISS but they will fly there courtesy of our friends "RUSSIA". And I don't mean free transportation either.  Now this does not necessarily need to be the end of our space program---the U.S. is still very active in various other space endeavors that do not involve human crews.  There will be countless other unmanned satellites placed into near earth orbit as well as some designed to study the outer realms of our solar system and beyond.  NASA is fighting desperately to keep its position of strength in space but money, politics, and other unknown factors has simply shut them out.  The proposed mission back to the Moon will likely never see the light of the moon(no pun intended) and plans for manned missions to Mars is so far out that they are not even serious contenders.  NASA will survive but not in any form that we have become so used to seeing in achievements and space firsts.  Tremendous cost and long lead times are very easily changed at the whelm of whomever is in political power and it is almost impossible to get an administration in power long enough to get a program funded, developed, and launched without so many changes that it is unrecognizable from the original project.  But that is what NASA is forced to work with and I am sure they will do the very best they can.


Lately, I have seen several ads for reruns of the movie "Apollo 13".  I don't care how much "liberty" Ron Howard may have taken with the movie version, it is one of the most amazing feats that has been accomplished by men and women of the space program.  And a very special salute to the crew of that ill fated moon mission.

James A. Lovell, Jr. commander John L. Swigert, Jr., command module pilot * Fred W. Haise, Jr. lunar module pilot These guys are the nearest our space program has ever come to leaving astronauts in unending space.  We have lost some other brave souls, but at least their fate was sealed here on the earth. Truthfully, I don't know if humans will ever make it to any other planet in our solar system of if humans will eventually travel to places within our galaxy.  It is beyond even my wildest imagination that humans will ever travel beyond our own galaxy. But with my trusty telescope I can travel there on any clear night and let my thoughts carry me to worlds unknown.  What the human mind can envision, humans will eventually achieve.