On 14 December, 1972, Eugene A. Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 moon mission, stepped OFF the moon's surface and entered the lunar module Challenger. Then some short time later that day ...
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration .... DIED!
NASA's death was rivetingly captured on film. Here it is ... (warning - it's tough to watch) ...
Goodbye ...
As the lunar module Challenger fired her boosters and left the moon's surface - fading slowly into the black lunar sky - so did the vision and dream that was every bit of the life of NASA.
Not too long ago Eugene Cernan was quoted as saying ...
"Yes, I am the last man that walked on the moon and that is a dubious and disappointing honor. It's been far too long."
Captain Cernan turned 71 this year in March. I wish him many more good years of life but the fact is folks, in the not too distant future all of the heroic men that walked on the moon will be gone. That will leave us with NO ONE on this planet who has first hand experience of what walking on the moon was really like. No human being will remain who has gone any farther than near-earth orbit. All we will have left are the memories, and the faded video of our greatest technological acheivement - putting men on the moon.
My daughter is a senior in college this year - and she has never witnessed a man walk on the moon in her entire life.
In fact, since before my daughter was even born - NASA has done nothing with manned space flight except launch space shuttle missions. The only exciting thing happening at NASA these days is happening in their UNMANNED space division - and I have to admit - that is some pretty exciting stuff. It isn't Neil Armstong's footprint in the lunar dust though. It isn't Alan Shepard driving a golf ball "miles and miles and miles" across the moon's surface.
For those of you who are old enough to remember Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon - you can probably remember that ALL of us watching back here on Earth were just amazed.
However, when I now look back on that momentous event - and I consider the antiquated technology that was used to achieve it - I AM BREATHLESS.
There were no plasma screens back then. No pentium chips. No laptops. No integrated circuits, touchscreens, wireless networks, firmware - no artificial intelligence. I don't even think these men had a pocket calculator.
But it wasn't technology that allowed NASA to successfully put six pairs of men on the moon back then - it was sheer blue knuckled determination, drive, and most importantly - VISION.
I heard once, don't know if it's true - that according to the laws of physics, it's impossible for a bumble bee to fly.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration .... DIED!
NASA's death was rivetingly captured on film. Here it is ... (warning - it's tough to watch) ...
Goodbye ...
As the lunar module Challenger fired her boosters and left the moon's surface - fading slowly into the black lunar sky - so did the vision and dream that was every bit of the life of NASA.
Not too long ago Eugene Cernan was quoted as saying ...
"Yes, I am the last man that walked on the moon and that is a dubious and disappointing honor. It's been far too long."
Captain Cernan turned 71 this year in March. I wish him many more good years of life but the fact is folks, in the not too distant future all of the heroic men that walked on the moon will be gone. That will leave us with NO ONE on this planet who has first hand experience of what walking on the moon was really like. No human being will remain who has gone any farther than near-earth orbit. All we will have left are the memories, and the faded video of our greatest technological acheivement - putting men on the moon.
My daughter is a senior in college this year - and she has never witnessed a man walk on the moon in her entire life.
In fact, since before my daughter was even born - NASA has done nothing with manned space flight except launch space shuttle missions. The only exciting thing happening at NASA these days is happening in their UNMANNED space division - and I have to admit - that is some pretty exciting stuff. It isn't Neil Armstong's footprint in the lunar dust though. It isn't Alan Shepard driving a golf ball "miles and miles and miles" across the moon's surface.
For those of you who are old enough to remember Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon - you can probably remember that ALL of us watching back here on Earth were just amazed.
However, when I now look back on that momentous event - and I consider the antiquated technology that was used to achieve it - I AM BREATHLESS.
There were no plasma screens back then. No pentium chips. No laptops. No integrated circuits, touchscreens, wireless networks, firmware - no artificial intelligence. I don't even think these men had a pocket calculator.
But it wasn't technology that allowed NASA to successfully put six pairs of men on the moon back then - it was sheer blue knuckled determination, drive, and most importantly - VISION.
I heard once, don't know if it's true - that according to the laws of physics, it's impossible for a bumble bee to fly.
Don't tell the bumble bees that though.
And considering the technology NASA was working with back then - it should have been equally as impossible for them to put men on the moon. They succeeded because they refused to believe it was impossible.
For over 25 years now NASA has been sending astronauts into space on the space shuttle - an orbiter - not even capable of travelling to the moon let alone landing on it. Not capable of going anywhere as a matter of fact. The space shuttle is nothing more than a flashy pickup truck version of the Mercury space capsule that John Glen used to orbit the earth almost a half-century ago in 1962.
NASA's astronauts have orbited the earth - growing untold trillions of bacteria colonies in weightless experiments for the last 25 years. How exciting.
And now, they can't even get the space shuttle off the ground.
NASA doesn't belong in orbit - that's territory for civilian corporations. NASA should be pushing outward with manned space flights to Mars - coordinated and controlled from a manned "mission control" located somewhere on the moon.
NASA does not have the vision to do this.
NASA says - it's not the "vision" they lack to do these things - it's MONEY.
But I say that's wrong. People, and the government will invest money on a VISION. How did Stephen Jobs convince software companies to spend their resources creating software for his first Apple computer? How did he get corporations to back him when it was clear that he was no more than a garage operation with no chance of taking on the biggest computer corporation in the world - IBM??
It was VISION - he had one - and he communicated it. You can read about it in "The MacIntosh Way" - by Guy Kawasaki. But you won't find it at NASA these days.
33 years ago - NASA died. I hope that someday it'll be resurrected - but it will take men and women with VISION in order to do it.
For those with RealPlayer - click here to see a little of what the vision was like. Note the black and white video of Armstrong confirming what he believed would be in store for man's exploration of the moon. If we had only gone there ...
And considering the technology NASA was working with back then - it should have been equally as impossible for them to put men on the moon. They succeeded because they refused to believe it was impossible.
For over 25 years now NASA has been sending astronauts into space on the space shuttle - an orbiter - not even capable of travelling to the moon let alone landing on it. Not capable of going anywhere as a matter of fact. The space shuttle is nothing more than a flashy pickup truck version of the Mercury space capsule that John Glen used to orbit the earth almost a half-century ago in 1962.
NASA's astronauts have orbited the earth - growing untold trillions of bacteria colonies in weightless experiments for the last 25 years. How exciting.
And now, they can't even get the space shuttle off the ground.
NASA doesn't belong in orbit - that's territory for civilian corporations. NASA should be pushing outward with manned space flights to Mars - coordinated and controlled from a manned "mission control" located somewhere on the moon.
NASA does not have the vision to do this.
NASA says - it's not the "vision" they lack to do these things - it's MONEY.
But I say that's wrong. People, and the government will invest money on a VISION. How did Stephen Jobs convince software companies to spend their resources creating software for his first Apple computer? How did he get corporations to back him when it was clear that he was no more than a garage operation with no chance of taking on the biggest computer corporation in the world - IBM??
It was VISION - he had one - and he communicated it. You can read about it in "The MacIntosh Way" - by Guy Kawasaki. But you won't find it at NASA these days.
33 years ago - NASA died. I hope that someday it'll be resurrected - but it will take men and women with VISION in order to do it.
For those with RealPlayer - click here to see a little of what the vision was like. Note the black and white video of Armstrong confirming what he believed would be in store for man's exploration of the moon. If we had only gone there ...
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