Opaque Lucidity

Night Launch

I'm watching NASA TV right now as Space Shuttle Discovery is preparing to lift off. I saw a night launch from Orlando in 1990-91. There was a small lake on the base, and I remember being able to see the launch and its reflection in the rippled water. It was magical.

I don't pay attention to our space program like I used to. I am not old enough to remember the heady days of the Apollo program; I had to make due with numerous Shuttle delays before the first launch in 1981. Then I reached an age when it wasn't cool to like space stuff anymore, so I walked away and have never quite looked back. I wish now I had paid more attention.

In another 15 years, this nation will be returning to the moon. I hope this will inspire a new generation of American kids to pursue careers in the sciences and engineering; God knows we need it. Of course, I am no one to emulate---I only took enough math and science to graduate from high school. The Navy pounded more knowledge into my head, but it wasn't enough to light a passionate fire in me.

Wow! There she goes. If you live in Florida or anywhere along the coast of the Southeast US, I hope you are outside watching this. Already, the ship weighs less than half what she did at liftoff because of the fuel she has burned.

The solid boosters are gone and she's 45 miles high. That's not a takeoff for those with weak stomachs. She is now at negative return: if there's a problem, she can not return to the Kennedy Space Center. There are runways in Spain, somewhere in Africa (if memory serves) and Australia she can use in the event of an emergency.

We did an 84Online show the day after the Columbia disaster in 2003. I said then, and I still believe, that exploration is an essential part of the nature of man. There is the ever-present argument that the NASA budget would be better spent on something else. I disagree. While private space travel will eventually become practical, government-funded exploration will always have its place. After all, profit can not be gleaned from every endeavor.