When I was a lad in the 1980’s I looked up to the American Astronauts they were my heroes. I even dreamed of being one of them, later learning I was not an American citizen, nor a PHD graduate demotivated me enough to reevaluate my dreams.
Being a realist I am fairly certain I will not become an astronaut, When I was a”pre-tween” My late Mum bless her, got me up to watch every Shuttle launch from about 1982 to 1985 on TV1 before school, I think it was my late Father’s idea, when she died of Cancer in 1985 a few months later, in early 1986 (January) there was the Challenger disaster it was the only mission mum did not get me up to watch, funny how things work out, but I heard about it on the radio. As things progressed and the culpability Norton Thiokol and the O-rings was discovered, my interest in NASA and the space program was pushed away further, and I switched to optical Astronomy, even had my own telescope, a 10cm Refracting Meade telescope, with no image correction. Then the Columbia disaster in 2003 with the loss of the heat shield tiles, such preventable accidents and a horrible way to die, put me off entirely. Now those Astronauts of Project Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, I think they’re all gone. It’s like our veterans of WW1 … WW2, Korea, Malaya and Vietnam etc. The other heroes.
It’s sad, we have to get their stories, all of them, because such nostalgia comes with wisdom, why and how things are or were done – the knowledge. Before it’s too late. Those that forget history are doomed to redo it’s mistakes.
Fourth Estate News – Andreas Hagen