I was watching a movie on TV today about the Space Shuttle program. It jolted a few memories loose. In my lifetime, I have been lucky enough to have seen many of the wonders this country has to offer and a few offered by the world at large.
My first duty station in the Navy was at Patrick AFB in Cocoa Beach, Florida. It's ironic that I was sent to an Air Force Base, seems there was one ticked off Air Force recruiter back home who thought he was going to sign me up, he did come close. I wound up working at the Navy Port at the Kennedy Space center. This was my first time away from home, I had yet to learn of the amazing things I would see and experience in my lifetime but that was about to change.
In that short two years at Patrick AFB, I saw quite a few launches of rockets and missiles. The Airforce was constantly testing new missiles and the Navy contingent I was stationed with oversaw the Polaris missile program. I saw several rockets and missiles take off rockets that roared into space and missiles that lit up the night sky. Most rose in the sky without a problem but there was one Atlas rocket carrying several satellites that just couldn't seem to fly straight so they blew it up. They said pieces were scattered over a ten square mile area of ocean, it was a sight to behold as all those pieces left contrails on their way to the ocean.
Over the next few years NASA launched several missions to prepare them for a moon landing. The world was glued to their TV's on July 16, 1969 when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon while Michael Collins manned the capsule. An idea that had consumed mankind for centuries had come to life, the age of technology was upon us.
Fast forward nine years, in search of a better life Linda and I had moved to Titusville, Florida one of the gates to the Kennedy Space Center. Danny or Michel, as he is known today, was born on July 10, 1980 some thirteen years after Linda and I were married. The space program had entered a new phase, work on the first space shuttle was in progress. This was going to be the first re-usable space craft in the world that could carry a heavy payload of 50,000 lbs. and a crew of eight then return to earth and land like an airplane, it was called the Columbia STS-1.
Where we lived was about eighteen miles from the launch pad to be used by the space shuttle, if we went to the river front we could see the launch gantry in the distance. Brevard County was still a small county whose population would swell by several million people when a big launch was scheduled, Titusville got most of those people. Danny was not quite a year old when the Columbia was launched into space, it was April 12, 1981. The crowds of people seemed bigger than usual but this was not a usual launch, our little part of the world was big news.
On the day of the launch, Linda was at work in downtown Titusville, Danny and I were home. Danny played with his toys on the floor as I watched all of the leadup programming on our nineteen inch TV. When the countdown started, I held Danny in my arms and told him what he was watching though I'm sure he had no idea. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 blastoff, we watched as the shuttle rose above the launch pad then with Danny on my shoulder, I ran out into the front yard and watched as the shuttle soared above the trees. Columbia left a cloud of steam and exhaust behind it, the engines roared a deafening sound that was heard in Orlando some fifty miles away, the ground trembled as if there was an earthquake. We watched until we could no longer hear the engines or see the contrail of exhaust, together we watched history in the making.
There were six space shuttles built, Columbia, Challenger, Atlantis, Discovery, Enterprise and Endeavor. They all made voyages in space over the next few years but not without problems. On January 28, 1986, moments after liftoff, the Challenger exploded and the crew died, it was determined that a rubber seal was at fault. Returning to earth on February 1, 2003 a tile damaged during launching caused an explosion that destroyed the craft and it's crew over Texas, they were only minutes from landing.
Despite the problems we have led the world in space technology, others have tried and will continue to try but the USA seems to be the best, may it always be so. The space Shuttle program is over, new ideas have evolved; new goals have been set. There are now rockets that will lift off, go into space then return and land on the same pad they were launched from. We have machines exploring Mars for future landings by mankind and the Voyager space craft designed to explore our solar system in the 1960's has now entered the next one on it's continuing journey into infinity.
I have lived in an age of great advancements in technology that many think was the best thing to happen to the world at large. There were so many new gadgets that I can't begin to list them all but I think it was the space program that has left the biggest impression on me. I have always wondered that there might be other worlds among the stars, the question is "are we really alone, could there not be other civilized worlds". What the space program has done for life on this planet is remarkable, the possibilities of what it can do are staggering. I envy my grandkids and their grandkids and the many generations that follow for while I think I have lived in the best of times, the best is yet to come.
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