One thing I love about the blogosphere is that I unfailingly get alerted to or reminded of the things I need to know or remember.
Specifically, this photo was taken on December 24, 1968. I was a year and a half old.
When I was about 16 months old – that is, 38 years ago today – Apollo 11 touched down and Neil Armstrong took that small step down off the LM’s ladder onto that grey powder. Six missions. 18 men. No women. Only one of the men was a scientist. It’s now been over 34 years since a human set foot on any non-manmade object outside the atmosphere of Earth.
I am not going to die content if I I haven’t been able to see my planet from space before I go. Dammit. I’m putting my hope and faith in Burt Rutan and his collaborators and competitors these days. I hope they know how much their work means to me and, I’m sure, to a lot of other people with an empty place in their soul that will only be satisfied in the emptier places of outer space.