The Internet amazes once more
In the 60s, kids across the world tuned their radios to listen to a constant beeping emitted by Sputnik, as it hurtled across the sky at incredible speeds. Then they'd rush outside to see a tiny dot streak across the sky.
In the 70s, they watched launching's on TV.
Nothing much happened in the 80s, except there was lots of hair.
In the 90s the world lost interest in outer space, and was more interested in the possibility that Michael Jackson was from Mars.
But then the internet came, and the world got closer...and so did space.
Suddenly, we can now watch what's going on in space and in the shuttles. We can listen to Mission Control talk to the Discovery crew. We can see Earth, from space, as the astronauts are seeing it. We can see sides of the ship, constantly firing little jets to realign. We can listen to Mission control play wake up music for the astronauts.
Chills, it gives me chills. For a moment, you can take yourself off earth, and put yourself up there with the astronauts.
Watch it all, live at nasa's website:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
And to think, we've only ever gotten a human as far as the moon. I was sort of surprised to know that the missions to land on the moon ended only two years after we had first landed there.
It's so endearing to hear their wakeup music. A 20-30 second clip of some bizarre song, sounding like something you could expect to hear in a dentist's office while you await your cleaning. They wake up slowly, look out the window and see Earth...not the people on it, just a slightly-less pale blue dot (they're not that far, afterall). Quiet, still. A song which reminds them of home...or more peculiarly, the dentist's office. "Good morning discovery...there was your wakeup song Captain _______. That comes courtesy of your wife and kids."
The risk of it all is so impressive. You must admire these people... There's so much to say...yet perhaps it is best said with some silence.
