Dear NASA,
It doesn't seem possible, but 46 years ago today, July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. I have always been a huge fan of NASA and the US Space Program, a true Space Nerd and Junkie.
At my home on Woodstock St., I sat on the floor, glued to the fuzzy black and white images of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon, leaving a footprint in what looked like flour. Remembering that first picture of Earth taken from the Moon, imagining what Michael Collins (the 3rd astronaut orbiting the Moon) must be feeling as his two colleagues hopped around on the Moon like a couple of 4 year old kids. It couldn't possibly be 46 years ago!
I watched the Space Program from its blurry start, from the launch of Alan Shepard, to John Glenn, and every launch of Gemini and Apollo. Always wanted to be an astronomer, but couldn't get good enough at math to ever do it, so I became a worshipper from afar. My bucket list began then, the first entry being that someday I WOULD see a launch in person.
I remember the fear as the astronauts of Apollo 13 faced the danger of not ever coming home - no one probably knows I actually lost sleep over it. I remember the ingenuity and genius of those who fixed the problem from the ground, as well as the work of James Lovell (I have his autograph on his book!) and his fellow astronauts. I watched countless launches, countless landings, and remember very clearly being in my office on January 28, 1986 when we lost Challenger and her crew. It's not easy to do your job and fight the urge to cry. Followed the news closely when on February 1, 2003 the shuttle Columbia broke up in reentry. I always thought it inconceivable that a spacecraft made to withstand the force of launch could have tiles on it and insulation which seemed so fragile. I still believe to this day that those astronauts KNEW they weren't going to make it. I know those astronauts, and those of Challenger, and the three heroes of Apollo 1 (Chaffee, Grissom, White) have "fled the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God". **see note
I thank the fearless men and women of NASA - the astronauts, and the crews of the Space centers monitoring every move and making the journeys possible.
Arguments with those who thought (or think) that the Space Program is a waste: Heard 'em all. I have the best answer now... without them you wouldn't be reading this. You wouldn't have your nice little gadgets that you take for granted everyday. You wouldn't have your 300 channels of cable, or your satellite tv or radio (what, no Sirius??), CAT scans, MRIs, space blankets, computer mouse, cordless tools, firefighter gear, solar panels, memory foam, UV blocking glass or sunglasses, the list goes on and on.
And I finally DID get to see a live space launch - the last liftoff of the shuttle program, the Shuttle Atlantis - on July 8, 2011 - one of the most thrilling moments ever.
But I digress (as I often do). THANK YOU, NASA for making life easier, and giving me so much to see, read, and love. You helped me understand how insignificant we are in the face of an immense and infinite universe. Thanks for the Hubble telescope, and its thrilling, awesome pictures. Thanks for everything.
Love, patty
** from the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, aviator and poet (1922-1941), also paraphrased by Ronald Reagan at an address to the nation after the loss of the Challenger crew. The whole poem, which I love:
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
