Space, the final frontier
Yes, I know, a hackneyed phrase from a 1960's cult classic.
(Happens to be one of my favorite shows, but still...)
Scott Carpenter died last week. That leaves John Glenn as the sole surviving Mercury astronaut. I'm a bit too young to remember the Mercury days, I became aware of the space program in the Apollo days, but I just wanted to recognize Carpenter as a hero.
Back then, real space travel was a major deal. The world stopped while there was a NASA manned space mission in progress, so that we could watch the launch, reentry and everything in between on our television sets. the astronauts were celebrities, everyone knew all their names.
Nowadays space travel has become almost mundane. You don't know when a mission will be flown or who will be on it, unless you're a fan of NASA and follow it on social media like Twitter or Facebook.
Pity, really, when there's so much of the universe we haven't seen.
(Happens to be one of my favorite shows, but still...)
Scott Carpenter died last week. That leaves John Glenn as the sole surviving Mercury astronaut. I'm a bit too young to remember the Mercury days, I became aware of the space program in the Apollo days, but I just wanted to recognize Carpenter as a hero.
Back then, real space travel was a major deal. The world stopped while there was a NASA manned space mission in progress, so that we could watch the launch, reentry and everything in between on our television sets. the astronauts were celebrities, everyone knew all their names.
Nowadays space travel has become almost mundane. You don't know when a mission will be flown or who will be on it, unless you're a fan of NASA and follow it on social media like Twitter or Facebook.
Pity, really, when there's so much of the universe we haven't seen.
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