October 29, 1998
I wasn't around when John Glenn made his first expedition into space; my mother wasn't even a teen, so I wasn't even a twinkle in her eye! I only missed the Apllo 11 moon landing by a couple years, though of course as an infant, I wouldn't have remembered it anyway. I don't remember any of the other moon landings, either, and I do wish I'd been able to; I think that must have been an exciting time to be a kid.
The Space Shuttle first launched when I was 9 years old, and that pretty cool, especially since my mom worked for a company that made a valve for the shuttle, and we also had family friends who worked for Rockwell. I lived out in Southern California at the time, so when the shuttle would land at Edwards AFB, we'd always hear the sonic boom as it passed overhead, rattling the large plate glass windows in the classroom. As time went on, if not for those sonic booms, I think half the time we wouldn't have known that the shuttle was in space; like the Apollo missions of years gone by, they became a little run-of-the-mill, and didn't get the press coverage that they did at the beginning.
The Challenger exploded when I was a Freshman in high school, January 28, 1986, and I remember the announcement in Spanish class, my third period homeroom class. There was a long moment of silence, and I can only imagine what was going through everyone else's mind. It was a major shock, and I remember nothing else of that day, but going home that afternoon and seeing the terrible explosion played out over and over again on the television. Somehow, I couldn't believe it was real until I saw it for myself, and even then it was like a bad dream, and I kept hoping I'd wake up and find that it wasn't true.
I was a senior in September of 1988 when the Discovery made its triumphant return into space after the disaster of nearly three years earlier. My first period government teacher had checked out one of the A/V carts and set it up so we could watch the launch. There were delays, and the period ended just as the shuttle took off, but we all stayed the few minutes extra to see the shuttle safely out of sight, and trooped into our next class with just a minute or two to spare. Like the day of the Challenger explosion, I remember nothing else that happened. As our spirits were dampened that fateful day in 1986, this day they were high as the shuttle itself.
Once again, shuttle launches have become sort of run-of-the mill, at least until this mission with John Glenn. I think it's great that he has had this opportunity to return to space, and I hope that some good can come of it, through medical research that is being done, and the likes. I know there are debates going on, in USENET and otherwheres, that this has been a political payoff, et cetera, et cetera, but I think that he is doing it for the correct motivations, and if it's something that he's dreamed of doing since his first (and previously only) space flight, then that is simply an added benefit.
I think the exploration of space and what it has to offer us is a wonderful thing. Granted, we're probably still a long way from man setting foot on Mars, or having a manned lunar base of some sort, but in my lifetime alone we've made some pretty big strides (and even though I may joke about being old at times, I'm not all that old). Who would have imagined, a hundred years ago, that we would put man on the moon? Jules Verne, maybe, and some others who were 'just a bit' ahead of their time. The rest of us laughed and called it science fiction.
What with the dawn of the Information Age, technology is growing in leaps and bounds and I believe it's going to continue doing so, right until we leap ourselves to our neighboring planet, and beyond. No, I don't think there are little green men on Mars, but I don't think we as a planet are likely to be the only inhabitants of the universe, or even of our own galaxy. Only time will tell.
I think of all the shuttle launches, I have probably only watched three or four, and today's was one of those. From all the pre-launch checks, until the shuttle was so small as to not even be a speck in the camera's lens. I still hold my breath until the solid rocket boosters separate, and breathe a sigh of relief when the shuttle is out of sight. I hope the mission goes well, and that discoveries are made that can help us all, planetbound and not. Godspeed, John Glenn, and all the rest of the crew of Discovery. You are brave souls, one and all.
