Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Space Shuttle (April 12 1981 - July 21 2011)

NASA
 
Yes, I know it cost a fortune when so many people on Earth have little or nothing, but like Bill Hicks once said if we stopped spending all those billions on weapons of mass destruction we could both feed the planet and travel together to the stars, right?

Brian Eno - 'Always Returning' (1983)

[More amazing pictures here]

14 comments:

  1. you know that's just what i was thinking (and trying to write - see later)
    look to the stars my friend and feel your heart swell
    x

    ReplyDelete
  2. We were having a science lesson at the time and Ye Olde School Telly - in a bespoke snug-fit pine cupboard with extended legs and wheels at the bottom - was rolled in so we could watch the shuttle blast off (or land I can't remember which) Incredible though, whichever one it was..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Same here. We were allowed to watch in The TV Room. I was not quite 16 years old.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have immense admiration for the nutters who went up in those things.

    It feels like, I don't know how to explain it but that we are going backwards rather the boldly going etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. When I lived in Florida we could sometimes see it in the sky from our office window, even though we were in Tampa.

    I went to a launch once but it was stopped 30 seconds before take off because of weather. Bloody useless thing, a little rain and it couldn't fly. Bit like a British Rail train in that respect.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Though not, to be fair, in any other.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I remember the whole school watching the first launch on a telly in the dining room. I'm sure we'll all live to see a Mars landing. It might be the Chinese but that doesn't matter really, does it?

    ReplyDelete
  8. No Artog, it really doesn't matter who does it as long as somebody does.

    ReplyDelete
  9. If you haven't read it - tuck into Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. It makes Apollo, shuttles and spacewalks all the more mind-frying..

    ReplyDelete
  10. And that book about the moonwalkers from a years ago. The name escapes me but it's dead good.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Probes my thought processes reminding me that I'm still an insignificant little wretch.

    Mind, I struggle to survive on planet earth, let alone another lickle star.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Monndust, that's it. 1p? Bargain.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.