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It makes me think back to my first career vision. I wanted to be an astronaut. There was a recording made of John Glenn's flight, and I played that LP until I wore it out.
Going out at night to watch Sputnik go over - a moving light in the sky that was man-made. Still gives me goose bumps remembering those feelings. Can still hear those radio beeps.
Sitting out with a telescope trying to see Apollo 11 and Eagle on the moon's surface.
The sad thing is that NASA couldn't figure out what to do once they got there (no JFK to provide a goal/vision-thing I guess) beyond raise a flag, hit a golf ball, and drive a dune buggy.
Needed more kids with dreams on staff I guess.
The sad thing is that NASA couldn't figure out what to do once they got there (no JFK to provide a goal/vision-thing I guess) beyond raise a flag, hit a golf ball, and drive a dune buggy.
Umm, actually, they did a lot of science on those missions. Mostly it was rock collecting, but by doing some careful observation, they collected rocks from different craters they knew were different ages, and managed to glean a lot of information about the formaiton of the early solar system, the relative frequency of meteorite impacts, etc etc.
The first few missions weren't much more than a flag planting ceremony, and a test of the equipment and capabilities of the system and the astronauts in the environment, but more and more science was getting done as the missions went on. NASA was hamstrung a bit by the fact that the astronauts were all pilots, not scientists, but they did what they could.
The public PERCEPTION was that it was just a joyride for the rocket jocks, and that was NASA's fault, ie: mishandling the media relations.
...I bet that guy got in trouble.
