Astronaut Day

This year like few since the 1950s and 60s, even early into the 70s, has been such exciting a year about space and being an astronaut.

Returning to the moon, observing things never seen before by the human eye and all the excitement about Space exploration is incredible.  But the plans laid out for where we are going to go next has my excitement about all things space, especially our astronauts off the charts.

I was young enough to have been alive and fixated, along with the rest of the world, the day Americans planted our flag on our incredible moon. It was the stuff of legends, memory, courage, and imagination. As a young child, it was an unforgettable moment indelibly ain’t upon memory.

The courage of all the mission's prior was extraordinary, in retrospect. All our space exploration has been an unbelievable journey, not all good, along with the highs has been some gut-wrenching, heart-breaking losses but through it all, the courage of the astronaut shines through as they make a lifetime of Space exploration their goal for themselves and us.

As a child, I watched the landing, and then again was privileged to see the landing of a few weeks ago, my heart swung right back to that original moment as a little girl glued to a black-and-white TV, wide eyed full of heart, sewing pride, as they took one step for mankind and planted a flag on the moon. Then the worry, sitting, waiting, as part of a nation held our breathe as they lifted off and return to earth. The danger everyone knew and understood, but they, the astronaut took it in stride. It was part of their goal, their mission, and we were privileged to observe and pray.

In between those two events, there have been countless other missions, those man and unmanned. The space station, and the incredible amount of knowledge learned by that global partnership has been mind blowing.  The technology, test and trials, experiments all done in space have led to discoveries and improvements in the human condition on earth.

Who could forget the incredible mastery and yet the danger of the updates and repairs to the Hubble telescope? Their courageous parts replacement and technical adjustments extended the life of that incredible and amazing machine years beyond its original intent, and we have all benefited.  But let’s not forget these losses with the space shuttle and others that is the price of exploration and yet these amazing astronauts, considerate their mission and they do it so well.

So on national astronaut day, we look at the totality of what these amazing men and women have given and the contribution. Save made. We look forward to those to come as we return to the moon, build a base there, and go on to Mars the contemplation in that little girl‘s eyes would’ve been nothing more than imagination and yet today we step onto the brink of a base on the moon and real American ingenuity to see Mars to the astronaut we tip our hat and are thankful you make our heart sore thank you!

Until next time

M. G.