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A few of you probably remember the rant/essay that I posted a while back about the American space program and how we should be focusing on the problems of this world before we turn outward. Well, yesterday I posted that piece on fictionpress.com, and today when I checked my e-mail I had a single review. It read as follows:

"One of the reasons we ( Read more... )

...What they saw was part of a disk four times the size of the Moon as seen from Earth; and it seemed even bigger because of the Moon's foreshortened horizon. It was not the full Earth so familiar from pictures, but a waning crescent, streaked with cloud swirls and burning with a fierce blue-green radiance -- a light with depth, like the fire held ( Read more... )

To me, manned spaceflight is pure humanism: the proof of the worth of humanity, a symbol of a world that is technologically advanced and open-minded, adventurous enough to go forth boldly into the great unknown of our time. It signifies the ultimate advance of science, but a science of awe and no longer one of boredom. Space is beautiful in a way ( Read more... )