There is a lot of buzz about the space program right now. With the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, the recent shuttle launch, the retirement of the space shuttle, and the new ARES program, there is much to talk about.
Personally though, it is nothing out of the ordinary. The space program is and has always been a part of mine and my family’s life.
Since the earliest days of Cape Kennedy, someone in my family part of the space program. In fact, my dad was the 1st person to work 30+ year at Kennedy Space Center. A achievement he reached before his death in 1990. He would tell stories of the early Brevard county, when he would see astronauts around town or even when he fished alongside the President who was here for a launch. He and my family were among the first to be “involved”. In fact some of my family lived in Patrick AFB base housing, supporting the Mercury and Gemini programs, before military did.
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Still today, we are part of the space program. I work supporting the Spacelift Range and my brother-in-law part of the ARES team.
But it wasn’t until I joined the Air Force and move away, that I realize how much I took the space program for granted. While living in Nebraska, John Glenn made his last space flight on STS-95 aboard space shuttle Discovery. After the launch I was randomly stopped outside of a department store in Omaha, Nebraska by a report asking for opinions of the space program, and if we really needed it. Obviously, when published, my opinions were in the minority compared to the other middle America’s who were asked.
When I travel now and tell people were I’m from, they always ask about “seeing the launches. Well that, and “Ron Jons”. I always ask them if they had ever seen a launch. Most say no. My response is always, “it is a must see before you die”. I tell them of coming home from work at one time and having to hang all the pictures back on the wall after the vibrations from a shuttle launch knocked them down, or of the luminance of a night shuttle launch on a clear night.
The space program is as important to the history of America as Gettysburg and Ellis island is. We constantly see people on the news, crying after a launch; it is that moving. It is the stuff you dreamed about when you were a kid, and you see in your own kids eyes when they see it.
NASA, the space center, and the launch range touches everyone’s lives around me. While I took it for granted earlier in life, I understand now how important it is to us as American’s and as human beings. I cherish all of the moments I was able to be part of. The good, like the first shuttle launch on April 12, 1981, and even the bad, like the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.
Throughout the years, my dad saved various memorabilia from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the shuttle programs. A room in our house was adorned with pictures of Saturn V launches and launch patches. Somewhere in my family’s possessions is even a piece of thermal tile from the Challenger disaster.
Below a few of the items I have. There is much, much more.
Now I know that roundabouts are something new to most American’s when they encounter them, but damn people use some common sense in regards to other drivers. Drivers on a roundabout near my house simply do not grasp that there are two lanes moving around that circle.
I’ve been wakeboarding since I was a teenager. I first learned on a 