The final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program has a lot of people looking back with wistful memories of space exploration. Watch Brian Malow, who refers to himself as a “science comedian,” recount his “lifelong relationship with space” in this poignant video essay, explaining why he thinks we go into space and why we should continue.
Along the way, he tells us about his own profound transformation while on a trip to see the space shuttle‘s launch, asking his girlfriend to become his wife. Touching stuff.
On a personal note, I’ve also had a life-long relationship with space. I remember watching the launch of the first U.S. man into space on TV, when Alan Shepard climbed aboard a Mercury/Redstone spacecraft on May 5, 1961. Even at the tender age of four, I could tell something monumental was happening.
I watched in disbelief as a TV showed live video of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. Years later, I watched the space shuttle lift off from NASA’s press area, and stood awestruck as Challenger thundered into the sky right in front of me, on its first night launch in 1983.
To me, this last shuttle mission doesn’t feel like an ending, but a beginning of even more exploration into space. As Malow quotes Carl Sagan, we are “star stuff,” and it’s going to be difficult to keep us from continuing our exploration of the cosmos. Hopefully, the next vehicles will be more useful to scientists than the space shuttle was, and more accessible to all.
Did you grow up with the space program? Did it affect you as profoundly as it did Malow?
[ScienceComedian.com, via Time Videohttp://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1041054441001_2081723,00.html]
More About: Atlantis, Brian Malow, NASA, shuttle, shuttle launch, space exploration, space program, video
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Along the way, he tells us about his own profound transformation while on a trip to see the space shuttle‘s launch, asking his girlfriend to become his wife. Touching stuff.
On a personal note, I’ve also had a life-long relationship with space. I remember watching the launch of the first U.S. man into space on TV, when Alan Shepard climbed aboard a Mercury/Redstone spacecraft on May 5, 1961. Even at the tender age of four, I could tell something monumental was happening.
I watched in disbelief as a TV showed live video of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. Years later, I watched the space shuttle lift off from NASA’s press area, and stood awestruck as Challenger thundered into the sky right in front of me, on its first night launch in 1983.
To me, this last shuttle mission doesn’t feel like an ending, but a beginning of even more exploration into space. As Malow quotes Carl Sagan, we are “star stuff,” and it’s going to be difficult to keep us from continuing our exploration of the cosmos. Hopefully, the next vehicles will be more useful to scientists than the space shuttle was, and more accessible to all.
Did you grow up with the space program? Did it affect you as profoundly as it did Malow?
[ScienceComedian.com, via Time Videohttp://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1041054441001_2081723,00.html]
More About: Atlantis, Brian Malow, NASA, shuttle, shuttle launch, space exploration, space program, video
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