The arching sky is callingSpacemen back to their trade.
All hands! Stand by! Free falling!
And the lights below us fade.
Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps the race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet.
We pray for one last landing On the globe that gave us birth; Let us rest our eyes on fleecy skies And the cool, green hills of Earth.
--Robert A. Heinlein
I've been watching CBS this morning, Dan Rather seems to me to be the most human of the news anchors, never afraid to let some emotion show, while not wallowing in it. The latest video shows the orbiter as a brilliant shining star, shooting across the early morning Texas sky, it's beautiful, and tragic.
I wonder how the three people on the ISS will get home, I doubt the March shuttle mission will launch on schedule, and while they've got a lot of extra supplies, it could be years before another shuttle launch, if there is ever another one. They have an escape pod vehicle, a russian capsule, but that was really only for an emergency, and of course, it's never been done before.
An instant message from a friend, a frantic fumble with the T.V. remote, and suddenly, I'm in the fourth grade again, watching the loss of a Space Shuttle. I'm reminded again of how high the price of progress can be.
Godspeed, Columbia.
The article that I'm mentioned in was in today's paper. Check it out. Ever notice how people seem smarter in print than they do in real life? It's strange seeing yourself quoted elsewhere, even when the quote is accurate (as these were). My one complaint about the article is that it doesn't include the URLs of any of the weblogs mentioned within it, if I mention a web site, I always link to it, or at least provide the URL. Oh well, that's dead-tree journalism for you!
The picture below is of one of my high school friends, Brian Dockwell-Thoe. His Iowa National Guard unit has been activated, and he's being shipped out to an unknown destination, though you don't have to be a military genius to figure out that it's probably Iraq. His picture was in the area paper for North Iowa.
North Iowans say farewell, Godspeed to 1133rd Transportation Company
MASON CITY - Hundreds of North Iowans wept, waved American flags and hugged their loved ones this morning in an emotional send-off to 170 members of the 1133rd Transportation Company of the Iowa National Guard. The guard unit, called up for active duty last week, left in a convoy for Fort McCoy, Wis., its mobilization station, where they will await their next assignment.
A formal farewell ceremony was held inside the armory, but many residents braved bone-chilling weather as they lined the streets to say their good-byes with a shout or a wave.
