Sunday, September 15, 2024

The Latest Shall Be the First - Again

Do you remember the pessimism you felt in 1965 because of the war in Vietnam, tensions in the Middle East, the civil rights issues, people marching in the streets for this cause or that indignation? It was all documented in a song by Barry McGuire called “Eve of Destruction”.
 
But then, how about the verse, ‘You may leave here for four days in space, and when you return it's the same old place’? Didn’t you feel there was a little bit of hope he was praying for?

Not much is different, almost sixty years later. But of course, other than places and causes and events, history keeps repeating itself to teach us lessons. If we just open our eyes and ears.

And so it was this week. A similar event took place in space, where people walked higher than anyone had been, other than those brave voyagers who traveled to the Moon and back, and have come back to that ‘same old place’ to tell the tales of their successes.

The BBC online and others reported this, as follows:

The Dragon capsule made splashdown off the coast of Florida shortly after 03:37 local time (07:37 GMT), in an event stream lived by SpaceX.

"Splashdown of Dragon confirmed! Welcome back to Earth," SpaceX said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The US space agency Nasa said the mission represented "a giant leap forward" for the commercial space industry.’

I have been hopeful all throughout this latest mission by those who, before this week, were ordinary land lovers like you and me. But today, they are the first real commercial, not government, astronauts who have ventured far from home, impressed and entertained us, and returned to tell their tales.

I am inspired and hopeful that they won’t be the last. Just like those Gemini astronauts inspired our country and showed us that conquering space was possible, almost sixty years ago.

And then, we realize it isn’t the same old place at all.

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