Last Flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis & Remembering QuikScat ... or Another One Bites the Dust...

Sitting here watching the Space Shuttle Atlantis take off for the last time. And, I am listening to the author Tom Jones who wrote "Skywalking" and he is asking us "where else can we go but renting seats on Russian Rocketships?" Good Question ...

Where are we going indeed?

We can pass bills based on partisan biased and yet we watch as a part of our space program is ending without anything on the drawing board, being made to replace it.

Sort of a lot like the problems with QuikScat dying and sending it's last image without anything being readied to be launched to replace it.

All I can think as I watch Atlantis lift off for the last time is... something is very wrong. If we don't know where we are going after the Space Shuttle then we are going nowhere...



I'm a child of the Sixties, we grew up watching breaking news and viewing spaceships take off into outer space from our living rooms on the television. T Minus and so many minutes and counting. We grew up believing that by the turn of the Century we would be doing wonderful things in Outer Space. Of course, we thought we'd be flying to work like George Jetson but we are still dependent on fossil fuels that link us more to Fred Flintstones than we do George Jetson....




What happened to the belief that who is first in Space and who conquers Space will be in control of things from future exploration to discoveries to protection of their country's assets and well being?

John F. Kennedy got it!
Ronald Regan got it!

Why doesn't anyone get it today?

You stay on the cutting edge of technology, you don't take a back seat and put your trust in other countries who might not always want to work with you.

This is as simple as it gets.

I'm tired of this "It is what it is" passive aggressive philosophy that has begun to reign supreme in the world today.

We did not get to where we are as a Super Power by back in the forties and fifties by saying "it is what it is" and we need to drop that mentality faster than external fuel tanks.

We need the best information available to help meteorologists track hurricanes and changing weather patterns that change in real time and not always in the way a model predicts. We need to learn more about hurricanes, about tornadoes, about oil spills and how the ocean currents work and maybe even about Global Warming.

If we do not have a global perspective and we don't have an agenda to have something in place, ready to go when one satellite dies or a program is phased out...how do we stay on top of our position of power on Planet Earth?

Time passes and time passes fast and Tom Jones asks some serious questions... "where are we headed" and I wonder are we readily taking a back seat to other countries?

It's always good to have options. Always. Plan A... Plan B. Seems we are moving into uncharted territory by going without any options and saying "well it is what it is" and thinking we will figure it out.

When the Space Shuttle takes off there is the option of various contingency plans if something goes wrong. A point of no return means they cannot return or land in Spain. We live and die on contingency plans and back up plans and currently we have no viable options and that bothers me... it worries me... and it should worry a lot of us.

This is not a partisan issue. It's not an either or scenario. It's whether we go forward or we stand still and by standing still we are going backwards.

Personally, I have always believed winners stay on top by moving forward and there are so many places we as Americans, as Human Beings have to go in the Universe.

Something to think on while saying a Long Goodbye to the Space Shuttle Atlantis and her last launch.



Besos Bobbi

A good article to read and wonder on while wondering where we are going:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/nasa/4344602

Right now... Atlantis has lifted off and she has already gone...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z082xUBdzrM

Sad song... sad truth that we need to stop and think we are going with regard to space and with regard to the future.