Hey, y'all. It's Friday night and time for a party ... and boy do I have reasons for one.
First, Star Trek Day at Space Center Houston -- I had a chance to enjoy, with my crewmates from the USS Lone Star, September 17. If you can imagine a road trip taking you further than the surface of the moon ... go 'cause this one takes you there.
Starfleet chapters from all over Texas and Louisiana sent representatives to Region 3's Star TrekDay at NASA.
Secondly, there's being back home, here in Lubbock. I spent September 27-October 4 in El Paso.
I love it there. It's as mysterious and alluring as anything Marty Robbins ever imagined ... and like the NASA engineers, he imagined quite a bit. It's far less dangerous in El Paso now than at this time last year; the economy in Juarez is beginning to pick back up with los federales in town to keep an eye on the cartels ... it'll be tough to bring everything back, but people there are working on it already.
This coming weekend there's AIRSHO in Midland, where I'm hoping to have a chance to hear one of my favorite singers live on Saturday night, performing on the wings of the world's only flyable B-29 Superfortress ... hop on over the orange flare with me for more ....
The CAF Airsho takes flight again this year at Midland International Airport, as a way to remember, preserve, and press forward with our American military history and heritage. It wasn't always what it is today -- and what the CAF is saving very nearly went the way of the passenger pigeon in the 1950s, when the government started surplusing, or destroying for scrap, the aircraft and other equipment with which the Allies won the war against Germany, Italy and Japan. Similarly, efforts are underway to preserve the spacecraft with which the USA raced to better the USSR's Sputnik achievements.They're similar. They're efforts not to let where we've been be buried in the past, but to preserve the vision, the blood and sweat and tears, the work, the innovation, the inspiration, Americans created and built and worked out, from imagination to achievement, that's the best of our national inheritance. I've got another diary on the CAF airshow up. Here, I want to talk about what amazing experiences Space Center Houston and the Johnson Space Center are.
First of all, there's Space Center Houston's approaches -- they have a scale model of our solar system out front.
It's a good long walk from the main entry to Jupiter, let alone Neptune and Pluto! Once through the theatre-style front doors of the Johnson Space Center visitors' entrance, you've got a choice of half-a-dozen paths to follow.
Hungry? Want souvenirs? Interested in a movie? Intrigued by the flight simulators? Want to touch a space rock? Or do you want to tour the Johnson Space Center's Vehicle Mockup Facility and see International Space Station Mission Control? You can do it all, from here ...as well as spend a day in the museums after the movies, if you want! Or you can spend a day in the Kids Space Place area. That's not even taking into account the Zero Gravity food court ...
Now, we're talking about mid-September in Houston, Texas, so the weather's hot. Fortunately, the part of the tour that takes you past the longhorn herd into Rocket Park involves a tram ride.
That's right. Longhorn herd. This is Texas, after all.
Ours stopped at Mission Control and the Vehicle Mockup Facility as well as Rocket Park, where I got to touch a Saturn V rocket (the last real one ever built never flew. It's preserved in a climate-controlled building on the JSC grounds now, restored to launchpad condition after decades in Houston's salt air and brutal sun).
Back inside Space Center Houston (think a cross between a museum and Disneyland, only the theme is exploring space instead of a cartoon mouse and the exhibits are all about real events), I had the chance to watch films featuring genuine NASA footage of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, board a Space Shuttle command section, attempt to lift off, fly, and land a shuttle simulator (um, yeah. It's the T-38 simulator, with a little augmentation; but that doesn't stop it being a challenge!) and spend as much time as I wanted learning more about the greatest adventure our nation ever undertook.
Yes. I touched a moon rock. And a capsule door, too. It was a.w.e.s.o.m.e. Not least because I got to watch my beloved, and my older son, enjoying it right along with me -- and with the rest of the USS Lone Star's landing party. Our ship's CO, our Marine Strike Group CO, our procurement officer, myself and two other members of our chapter of Starfleet had the greatest day, ever ... so far, at least.
Oh, yeah.We're planning to go back. Stay longer. Learn more. That's what boldly going's all about!
If you've never seen all the NASA mission patches in one place, it's a genuine eye-opener when you do. The story of where those patches came from doesn't take long to tell, but it's a touching reminder of how fragile -- and how forward-looking -- human astronauts are, and what a huge undertaking they've overcome since 1957. That picture is Mark Kelly, retiring as an astronaut after 25 years serving the Navy and NASA, with Joe Biden presenting him some hard-earned medals, while his wife, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, watches.
Not unlike Apollo 13, Congresswoman Giffords had a near miss this year. She's making a really inspiring recovery.
Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly's story, like Apollo 13's, has what looks like a very happy ending ahead.
It's not always so, as in the case of Apollo 1. We lost Steve Jobs this week. I never was much of an Apple (tm) fan, but the man had vision -- a savvy sort of vision that reached up and out toward what was better, not what was cheaper. He'll be missed sorely. He's another part of the generation I grew up in: an America that could, an America that did, an America that achieved, built, led. Let's toast Steve Jobs tonight. In fact, let's spend a moment's remembrance on some folks who went to LEO and didn't get home -- aboard Challenger and Columbia -- and some folks who reached for the moon, and never got off the launchpad; don't we owe them all a toast, and a better service to their memory, their sacrifice, and the gifts their lives' work poured over our nation than "austerity"?
Raise a glass. Play a song. Send a poem, or a candle, or a flower. Look forward, look up -- and in memory of how far we've come and defiance of those who'd stop us in our tracks, reach for the stars!
