Thursday, May 8, 2008

Leaving Solid Ground

John Glenn attended NASA's 50th anniversary celebrations on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. this week. An American Hero, with a capital H. He's the first American in orbit, a former Senator, and the oldest to fly on the space shuttle at 77, ten years ago. Who says rank doesn't have its privileges?

Our Heroes, by their nature, are complex individuals. They are allowed to express their opinions long past their expiration dates. For someone who started down the enabling path to the moon it is unfortunate to hear out-dated opinions once again reverberating in DC.

"The investment we have up there and the potential for learning new things are tremendous at a time when we're coming under additional global competition. The International Space Station is the greatest, most complex laboratory ever put together."

But our Hero is not done.

"The shuttles may be old, but they're still the most complex vehicle ever put together by people, and they're still working very well," he added.

JG, ISS, STS. All complex. Unfortunately, complexity, in and of itself, is not always a good thing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

At NGEC, Buzz blathered on for 90 minutes. He'd have a one-sentence coherent point every 15 minutes or so. The rest was just words. Sad, sad, sad.