My sister Liz sent a note to the clan yesterday. She lives on the gulf coast of Florida, and went outside the other night to see if she'd be able to see the space shuttle after its launch. Lo and behold -- she saw it, from hundreds of miles away. She said she could see it for about two minutes as it powered its way out of the atmosphere.
My friend Dennis is a contractor at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He's been working on -- among other things -- fixing the toilet in the space station. (I'm sure there's a pun just waiting to happen here, but it's early in the morning and my brain isn't yet fully engaged.) He went to Cape Canaveral to watch the launch. I just can't imagine the sights and sounds of a night launch from that vantage point.
I've never seen a launch, but we were in Cocoa Beach a few years ago when the shuttle was returning from space. It was at night, and although we could not see the shuttle, we heard its characteristic double sonic boom as it approached.
We spend a lot of money on space travel, and I think it's well worth it. The moon landing required a great deal of technology that didn't exist, and we all benefit from the advances that were made during the race to the moon. Think of the technology that was required. I met a few astronauts while visiting Dennis in Houston a few years ago, and one of them piloted the shuttle during a docking with the space station. He said that the most exacting part of the mission was the docking itself. The shuttle was coming in from above the space station (relative to the earth), and he explained that it was eighth-grade geometry that dictated the approach. The space station was closer to the earth, hence it had a shorter orbit than the shuttle. "It's as simple as two pi r," he explained.
I was excited when we finally put a telescope into orbit. The Hubble Telescope has taken loads of pictures, in various wavelengths, and we've learned a lot about the cosmos as a result. But for all our learning, we still have to marvel at the sheer beauty of space. Here are a few examples, and there are many more at the Hubble website.
Antennae Galaxies - NGC 4039-4039
Orion Nebula - M42
Galaxy Cluster
1 comment:
Sam, a great post! We lived in Boca Raton in Palm Beach County back when the Apollo 17 nighttime launch occurred. We were 150 miles south of the cape, but the entire northern half of our sky exploded with light. It was unforgettable. Another time we went down the Indian River from our condo in New Smyrna Beach for a daytime launch of the shuttle. We were only about three or four miles away from it. I cannot adequately describe the feeling of watching the launch up close and personal and having those tremendous sound waves pass right through my body from front to back a few seconds afterward.
Post a Comment