And lo my mind did lift from my dreary office confines and petty problems and soar upwards through the ceiling and outwards to the worlds and stars beyond, and my soul expanded with joy, and I gave a little cheer. I must admit I was very worried about that whole skycrane procedure. Like everyone else, I'd watched that 7 Minutes of Terror video that's been doing the rounds. It all just looked so complicated. So risky. So full of possible catastrophes and silly mistakes. And the Rover was so big. So car-sized. So swingingly unpredictable. One bump in the wrong direction and...Fortunately, the scientists at NASA are far braver than I, not to mention a lot lot smarter. Ah, to be high-fiving amongst learned comrades after having achieved such an inspiring success. Here's to the folks at NASA and their newest space explorer. Long may they provide us with material for our daydreams.
2 comments:
Wasn't it wonderful?
I remember...
going out with my father in Melbourne to stand for ages looking each night for the tiny dot of a Russian satellite passing overhead. Must have been the fifties? Maybe the early sixties?
I remember...
lying on my back on the nature strip, night after night, a star-map held overhead, matching the pictures to the reality above me. Do you remember when we could see the stars from a city street?
I remember...
sitting in a school hall, heart in my mouth, to watch those blurry pictures of a foot setting down on another world (I think of our moon as another world), praying that the astronaut wouldn't lose his balance and fall to the ground, never to rise again. Do you recall how scared we were that would happen?
I remember...
visiting the Washington museum and going into a small vehicle that had left our planet, gone elsewhere - and come back.
I remember...
travelling up to Ballarat (teachers' college or university) to sit in an auditorium and see real-time photos from a moon orbiting another planet. (Embarrassingly, I forget which.)
Ah, memories are made of this.
Thank you for sharing all those memories. It's always lovely when you meet someone you can reminisce with about these events because they were so seminal. The first moon landing, wow, it was unbelievably exciting, and something that brought everyone together.
But I suppose these things either press your buttons or they don't. I've stood in amazement before artifacts at exhibitions and felt teary at the wonder of the achievement they represented while people around me have glanced at the object, grunted to show how unimpressed they were, and moved on. Either your imagination can take that journey offworld, or it can't.
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