January 29, 2007

This week in January marks not one, not two, but all three disasters that have occurred in the near half-century of America's manned spaceflight program. In fact, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee. Yesterday was the 21st anniversary of the Challenger explosion, a day which I remember very vividly. Finally, Thursday will be the 4th anniversary of the re-entry accident which destroyed the shuttle Columbia -- an incident that seems to have slipped much of the public attention that the Challenger accident received, but has probably had more effect on NASA's manned flights than either of the other ones.

Though the debate over whether or not manned spaceflight is worth the risks and the costs rages on, most Americans still support the idea of sending people into outer space, and NASA is moving ahead with plans for a new set of manned moon expeditions with an eye on eventually sending astronauts to Mars. They just need to schedule the launches for some other week. Warpspeed, star sailors.

posted by briank 17 years ago
  • "If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. -Gus Grissom
  • They just need to schedule the launches for some other week. Let's pencil the next launch in for March 15. I'm with Gus - it's a worthy cause.
  • Beware the ides of March!
  • The Apollo One fire was extremely intense. RIP Gus, Edward, and Rodger.
  • "It's silly, no? When a rocket ship explodes, and everybody still wants to fly. Some say a man ain't happy truly, til a man truly dies." -Prince
  • I'm with Gus - it's a worthy cause. Fuckin' A, bubba!
  • Yeah. Space is ace. A worthy subject for cash and braver souls than I.
  • I disagree with antifirmamental zeal! What has this "cosmos" every done for us, eh? Every night the shutters of daylight deliquesce, and the vast broad-blank surface of night is let in to our planet - yet what does it give us in return? Cosmic rays of nuclear force bombard us, the subtle particulates of our atmosphere are drawn off one by one, and no-one can see where the fuck they are going. Enough of "space"! When it decides to treat us with the respect with what which when we deserve, then - and only then - shall we allow ourselves to tourist within its unending volumes, bringing it the freedoms that we Earth-persons naturally cuddle and cherish and suckle on a day-to-day basis. In closing then: fuck you, the universe, you beastly shit! Go home!
  • There's always one in every crowd, and it's usually quiddy.
  • *attempts to favorite the quidnunc kid's comment, realizes he's on the wrong site*
  • Great, like we need the universe to be more ticked off.
  • deliquesce?
  • *snaps fingers in appreciation, plays bongos*
  • If there was one quiddy in every crowd, then there would be many, many quiddies. However, since there could only be one in any given crowd, all of the quiddies would be lonely and would be unable to make contact with any of the other quiddies. I will begin working on the screenplay after work.
  • Bern! Baby! Love the look, kid, it's you! fanTAStico!Look, I need to let! you! know! my boy pete_best here would be perfect for quid #3. Ahp ahp ahp! Let me set the scene for ya baby - it's dusk . . . the Paris crowds are hurrying home with their . . I dunno cheese logs or whatever - when bam! this mug steps in front of the camera and slays 'em all with smoldering good looks? Hah?! Am I right or am I right? Ha ha ha seriously, Bern, I can call you Bern can't I good, look . . . Bern - This kid is dynamite he's so good you need to ink this! Do it now baby before those other . . pretender Captain Renown or quidfisto or whoever the hell get in here and muck things up.
  • *puts owl's head in bernockle's bed*
  • All The Lonely Quiddies starring Heath Ledger as The Quidnunc Kid, a man never alone but always by himself. also starring Thora Birch as a sensitive but misunderstood young woman who takes her top off 48 minutes into the film and Robin Williams as the voice of "Edgy", the Quidnunc Kid's long-lost computer animated mentor.
  • But quid, to quote Hawkwind: Space is infinite, it is dark Space is neutral, it is cold Stars occupy minute areas of space They are clustered a few billion here And a few billion there As if seeking consolation in numbers Space does not care, space does not threaten Space does not comfort It does not speak, it does not wake It does not dream It does not know, it does not fear It does not love, it does not hate It does not encourage any of these qualities Space cannot be measured, it cannot be angered, It cannot be placated It cannot be summed up, space is there Space is not large and it is not small It does not live and it does not die It does not offer truth and neither does it lie Space is a remorseless, senseless, impersonal fact Space is the absence of time and of matter
  • Don't forget that In Space, noone can steal your cream.
  • *smacks roryk's hand*
  • John F. Kennedy, We choose to go to the moon:
    We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours. There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
    (He was speaking at Rice.)
  • And President Bush chooses "terrifying theater of war."
  • Reading that JFK link I was thinking "Ah, such bold language to describe peace". And how it is missed. *sigh*
  • Perhaps forty years from now we'll think of Bush and Iraq the way we think of Kennedy and Vietnam.
  • Yes! Suckered by the French again!