It was nice to take a break from the Dingaling Bros-Barnum & Beelzebozo Circus yesterday to watch NASA pitching a high hard one at the moon.
When my sis and I were sprouts we often got to catch NASA’s act. The old man was a big fan of the space program (three of the seven Mercury astronauts were Air Force flyboys like him). So I remember the Mercury and Gemini programs from our time at Randolph AFB at San Antone. And of course Apollo, which took off after we’d transferred to Bibleburg, with the first crewed flight in 1968.
The old man collected autographed pix of the astronauts, and I built models of the craft they flew, even got into model rocketry for a time. Also, and too, “Star Trek,” because of course “Star Trek.”
Apollo 11, the first time a human set foot on the moon, was the crowning achievement. Nothing NASA did afterward thrilled me in the same way, possibly because I was too busy being a space cowboy with Major Tom.
Too much science fiction, I suppose. No lunar colony, no base on Mars, no interstellar travel … did my old B-burg bro’ Robert A. Heinlein live in vain? Here it is 2026 and we’re still stuck down here with the eejits, murdering each other and crowing about doing a hot lap around the moon, samey same as in 1968, when we got the famous photo “Earthrise,” from Apollo 8’s William Anders.
Ah, well. I still like to watch. And dream.
Mad Blog Media 
Was awesome. I relaxed after the solid rocket boosters were jettisoned.
There is a certain amount of breath-holding going on, for sure. Especially with an administration looking for distractions.
Pam Bondi is the latest distraction. What a tool she was! I guess she didn’t impress yesterday. Dirty under the bus, but she’ll probably like it.
“OK, boys, take that one down. New head coming for the spike!”
That just gives me the heebie jeebies.
That’s the stuff of marriage nightmares, heh?
I saw a few critters like her Back in the Day® when I went to SoCal to help BRAIN with production. Total rebuilds, and not with factory parts, either. Nightmare Barbies.
I am also a watcher and dreamer. Watching the results of government and contractor employees succeed on something that doesn’t kill anyone gives me some hope. I watched the moon landing at Ft. Leonard Wood while at basic training. We loved it, plus we got coffee and donuts.
There was a woman, a man of color, and a Canadian in the crew. I guess steven miller didn’t sign off on the crew selection memo.
Unless he had his thumb on the “Destruct” button and it malfunctioned. I mean, that’s three of his top 10 right there.
We did a lot of moon geochemistry when I was in graduate school. Stony Brook had (and still has) a bunch of NSF and NASA grants to work on moon rocks and lunar evolution. I was a beneficiary of some of that largesse. Was a really exciting time to be a science nerd.
Was nice to see us headed back to the moon again.
We shoulda been parked on Luna ages ago. Airtight condos and regular shuttles Earthside so you don’t lose your gravity legs.
And what a great place for a gravel bike, hey? It’s all gravel! Well, abrasive dust, anyway. Need a lot of Rock ’n’ Roll Gold to keep the chain running smoove like butta. Does Assos make a spacesuit?
I loved that Rock and Roll lube. I even used it on the garage door opener chain! Bet the garage door repair guys say, ” Look at this chain all cleaned and lubed. I bet a sprocket head lives here!”
Good stuff for sure. It’s the lube of choice for The Fleet. I’d use it on my creaky knees, popping ankles, and lower back if I could.
Yeah, I was really glad to see all so well with the launch. I could only imagine what story would have been created (in his mind) and spouted by mad king donny if there would have been a launch mishap.
I also grew up with the space program – My Dad did time with one of the NASA contractors. Space was a great thing to dream about but now that I’m older and wiser I realize that space travel isn’t all warm, fuzzy and spacious. I mean, in a current generation capsule there’s no where to run from Hal or the Alien. The one thing I continue to wonder about and maybe it’s because it’s thinking outside of the cage, but why isn’t NASA, Elon or anybody else thinking about training astronauts that are amputees, quadraplegics, etc. Certainly you don’t really need legs in space and many people with limited appendages can get by quite well, especially if you eliminated the pull of gravity. Just think of the launch cost savings by not needing to lift the extra weight of the repetitive body parts. Imagine that a child with limited leg or arm mobility, but with a wonderful brilliant mind, growing up to travel through space. Now that’s cool. And I’m ok because I’m happy down here on the globe having an intimate relationship with gravity as I enjoy some climb on my bike.
I’m halfway through Project Hail Mary. It was the blurb on the back that a library staffer quoted in her recommendations:
“A novel that would have delighted Robert A. Heinein and Isaac Asimov.”
Rented 2001 A Space Odyssey the other night to refresh my memory and ejikate the wife about AI. She fell asleep. I liked it, but had forgotten a lot about it. Need to read the book.
Man, I’ve seen that a brazilian times (How many is a Brazilian, anyway?). More than once on various controlled substances that added (or maybe subtracted) a little sumpin’-sumpin’ from the experience.
The flick had its roots in a couple Arthur C. Clarke short stories. He and Stanley Kubrick wrote the screenplay. The novel, which fleshes out a lot of the oddball bits, just sort of came along as they worked on the movie.
Wikipedia says Kubrick got so annoyed with Clarke at one point that he was thinking about bringing Michael Moorcock on board. Ho, ho, etc. Would he ever have had fun with the anarchist musician and prolific author of the far-flung Eternal Champion series. Moorcock might’ve chopped him into paté with Elric’s Stormbringer.
I wish I coulda been there for the launch.I bet the sound was amazing. The NASA TV coverage was awful. SpaceX does such a nice job with all the video of their launches. My dad worked for a NASA contractor in Houston back in the Apollo days. I’ve got a bunch of old photos and maps and a NASA coffee cup with my dad’s name on it. I had a few friends that worked on the shuttle back in the day. It was a good job for people right out of high school. Godspeed as they say
The NASA coverage was indeed non-awesome. Give me Walter Cronkite any old day. Can we maybe reanimate him somehow?
We’ve got NASA money in the family too. Various space-agency grants helped underwrite my brother-in-law’s research at Colorado State University before the cash thinned out and he decided to retire. It must be exasperating to spend as much time (or more) chasing funds as doing the science. Worser even than free-lance cycling journalism.