Space Exploration
November is National Aviation History Month and today we are saluting the thousands of people who have served in one capacity or another in the development of our country’s space program.
I recall a time long ago, when I was maybe five years old, and the grownups were all talking about Sputnik. I didn’t know what that was. I was told, “It’s a satellite.”
I was excited! I began imagining how much fun I could have with a saddle light. I could ride my pony, Patchy, all night long!
The coming years would introduce us to the Mercury Seven astronauts and their daring missions as our nation began the serious undertaking of putting men on the moon before the Soviets. Mercury. Gemini. Apollo.
Space walks. Rendezvous and docking missions. The horrible fate of the Apollo One crew Grissom, Chafee, and White. Lunar orbits.
And then one July night in 1969, I listened on a transistor radio in a tent in rural Kentucky as Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for [a] man. One giant leap for mankind.”
Who can forget the tension that gripped us as we held our breath and prayed for the crew of Apollo 13? It took the combined efforts of many people to get them home.
Years later, we had the Space Shuttle and the ISS. Maybe we will one day put a crew on the surface of Mars.
For some interesting reading, check out these links: