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An era begins...
Jul. 21st, 2011 09:59 pmI was fortunate to be on the job and present at the launch of STS-106, with the Atlantis Orbiter, back on September 8, 2000. Reading my LJ entry for that day brings back memories, especially those of the sound accompanying the launch—a crackling superposed on a deep roar—and how it just reaches out and shakes you. I recall the feeling of walking around for the rest of the day in a state of enhanced alertness, as I processed and basked in what I had witnessed earlier in the day, and my small part in it.
In the years since, I've been present at a number of rocket launches, all of them in Kazakhstan, and most of those involved Soyuz launch vehicles. At Baikonur, spectators are typically situated a lot closer to the launch pad than the 3.2 mlles between pad 39A and the viewing facility at Cape Canaveral, and while the sound of a launching Soyuz does build to shoulder-shaking levels, it seems to me that it falls away more quickly than does the sound of a Shuttle lifting into the heavens. Maybe it's my imagination, or maybe I haven't been to enough launches.
Atlantis returned to the Earth today, for the last time, ending a 30-year program that has been both a source of income and of frustration to me. And it would be easy to go off on a rant about how today's landing marks the end of human space exploration, if it weren't for the fact that such an argument is based on at least two fundamentally flawed assumptions: first, that the United States is the only country with the will, smarts, etc. to mount such an effort, and second, that its (or any) government is the only entity capable of doing so.
Today's data stream brought the following stunning image of the Orbiter's reentry, taken from the ISS:
In my mind, this image should not be viewed as representing the end of anything, but rather, of the beginning of a new phase in our history.
Nothing's over 'til it's over.
Cheers...
In the years since, I've been present at a number of rocket launches, all of them in Kazakhstan, and most of those involved Soyuz launch vehicles. At Baikonur, spectators are typically situated a lot closer to the launch pad than the 3.2 mlles between pad 39A and the viewing facility at Cape Canaveral, and while the sound of a launching Soyuz does build to shoulder-shaking levels, it seems to me that it falls away more quickly than does the sound of a Shuttle lifting into the heavens. Maybe it's my imagination, or maybe I haven't been to enough launches.
Atlantis returned to the Earth today, for the last time, ending a 30-year program that has been both a source of income and of frustration to me. And it would be easy to go off on a rant about how today's landing marks the end of human space exploration, if it weren't for the fact that such an argument is based on at least two fundamentally flawed assumptions: first, that the United States is the only country with the will, smarts, etc. to mount such an effort, and second, that its (or any) government is the only entity capable of doing so.
Today's data stream brought the following stunning image of the Orbiter's reentry, taken from the ISS:
In my mind, this image should not be viewed as representing the end of anything, but rather, of the beginning of a new phase in our history.
Nothing's over 'til it's over.
Cheers...
