July 28, 2005

The End Of An Era

The vision of Obadiah.


Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom
We have heard a report from the Lord,
And a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying,
"Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle"


"Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You shall be greatly despised.
The pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
You who say in your heart,
'Who will bring me down to the ground?'
Though you ascend as high as the eagle,
And though you set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down," says the Lord.

Obadiah 1:1-4 NKJV


I remember my Father telling me that the men of Apollo 11 read this passage as the circled the moon preparing for the historic landing July 20 1969. And again this passage was read in churches and in public during the worrisome days during the Apollo 13 crisis in 1971. They believed that God would protect and care for the astronauts as they did their heroic tasks... and I believe that God did.

I also believe that the losses we have suffered due to arrogance and greed in NASA and sub contractors, as well as politics are fortolled in that passage and perhaps are again if Mission Control gets arrogant again and assumes too much...

You know, sometimes I think that we in America are our own worst enemy, and I think that as a people we forget that work, innovation and sacrifice are what it takes to keep our nation free, and technologically advanced. We take so much for granted and when we lose something special, like our Space Program, we dont realize how great the loss.

I wrote on the 26th anniverasry of the Apollo 11 landing, July 20 that I didnt think the Orbitor Discovery, or any of the geriatric STS Fleet was safe to fly, that there is just to much out dated technology, and that we have lost the edge that we used to have in this endevour.

Well I saw the launch, and I saw, with out anyone pointing it out to me, that peice of God forsaken foam fly off after it hit the belly of the aircraft, like some horrible nightmare re run. I saw tile fragments fly off as well,... I cursed... "there it is,the end of an era" I said the Woody.. It was bound to come... they have to ground them and frankly, its about time, they are too fragile and use technology that is 30 plus years old. It was always like this, the orbitors are very delicate, and things went on before...we can just now document our ignorance better.

NASA did the right thing today in grounding the fleet, even if it means abandoning the damaged Discovery in orbit, and bringing the crew home in the wretched Soyuz capsules two at a time, which is a whole other disaster in itsself, It dooms the International Space station to a certain death as well... The loss is incalcuable, but better than losing any of those precious souls that risk it all to go up there and extend our knowledge just a little bit more. We owe them the best chance of getting home we can give them...But it is very sad, at least to me...

It still is killing me, I think this is as sad a day as we can have as a nation and it will pretty much go un noticed... Manned Space flight over...for how long...well a long time friends, a very long time.