Previous ||| Next
To Split Infinitive and Beyond!
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Discovery. Her twelve day mission: to return to the International Space Station. To seek out new safety features such as a repair-kit for heat shield tiles and a 50ft-long robotic arm that will inspect the shuttle for damage in space. To boldly go with a faulty fuel gauge against common sense.
From my perch here in Florida I will be able to observe the rescheduled shuttle launch, assuming that something else doesn't go wrong in the meantime as they fill up the fuel tanks with super-cooled liquid explosives. And yet its impossible not to get caught up in the magnitude, the magnificence of a nation that routinely shoots its citizens out into space.
Its all about the right stuff and the original seven, blasting space monkeys out there in the world's greatest validation exercise; we are someone, we exist, come and find us. Of course, when the aliens start to notice us and start blasting historical monuments we can all point at NASA and blame them. Its not a space race anymore, but they haven't told the Americans yet.
A local resident here, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, had this to say; "ach its thees dilithium chromatic transponders, they cannae take twintee years of missions withoot drainin' a wee bit. Ah can have her ready fur yeh in three months but don't go given' me any surprises" before being escorted away by Security.
Fingers crossed that fuel gauge wasn't important.
Jul.26.2005