Rush – Countdown
An evening pause: The video focuses on a shuttle launch, but I think the words apply to all launches, and especially to those that break new ground.
Excitement so thick you could cut it with a knife
Technology…high, on the leading edge of life
Hat tip Commodude.
From the press release: From the moment he is handed a possibility of making the first alien contact, Saunders Maxwell decides he will do it, even if doing so takes him through hell and back.
Unfortunately, that is exactly where that journey takes him.
The vision that Zimmerman paints of vibrant human colonies on the Moon, Mars, the asteroids, and beyond, indomitably fighting the harsh lifeless environment of space to build new societies, captures perfectly the emerging space race we see today.
He also captures in Pioneer the heart of the human spirit, willing to push forward no matter the odds, no matter the cost. It is that spirit that will make the exploration of the heavens possible, forever, into the never-ending future.
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I grew up watching shuttle launches, and actually saw one land in person at Kennedy many, many moons ago. That song still gives me the chills, because I remember the national excitement of the shuttle program. One of my high school teachers was the alternate to McAuliffe to go on the Challenger. I still remember where I was and what I was doing when that bird blew.
Then reality sets in, and like the article below on SLS, I remember that it was a 1960’s concept that didn’t actually fly until the 1980s and sucked the life out of NASA along the way.