Link-O-Rama

[nialla42]

Sinfest: "Get back! I'm armed and extremely religious!" [wheeze]

Reuters: Military members march for San Diego gay pride

I'm hoping in a year or so, they can march in uniform. They can truly show their pride then. The media always focuses on pictures of guys in drag and things outside of the vanilla spectrum to give more ammo to the anti-gay crowd (

Comments

[nialla42]

I added a link to the STS-130 wake up where they played the Firefly theme.

There's a wee bit of irony to playing it that day, as they were about to open the cupola on the Tranquility module, which NASA had held an online vote to name. One of the options was Serenity, and Browncoats rallied, but didn't quite make it.

[ldyanne]

That would be perfect!

[nialla42]

Totally fits. I went back and added a link to when they played it on STS-130, and then realized there was some irony in playing it on that particular day (see explanation in above comments).

Even if the US isn't launching their own astronauts for a while, at least we do have the option of paying for a ride on Soyuz capsules until there are other ways. Even if it's not "Made in the USA" maybe it will truly make the space program international and even more of a collaborative effort.

[malnpudl]

Re the shuttle: I hear you, and I second the rec. My heart gets all achy whenever I think of the end of the space shuttle program. Humans need that frontier; we need to keep moving, exploring, questing, seeking. I hope the talk of future (hu)manned missions to Mars -- and even a Mars base -- come to fruition, and that the wait is measured in multiple decades.

[nialla42]

With the current state of politics, I fear it won't happen. Not enough money to be made in the space business these days, so politicians won't push for funding because they're not trying to please the companies who pay for their election campaigns.

We also don't have a "space race" mentality which fostered such a huge push for young people to go into demanding jobs that required a high level of education. Nowadays, we're lucky if high school graduates can read close to their grade level. Hell, some college graduates I worry about their capacity for learning.

I know there's some talk of China's space program leading towards missions to the Moon and Mars, and they very well could do it. There's just not enough of a competitive streak anymore. The Chinese practically own large chunks of the US, so that's close enough, right? [sigh]

I just don't feel today's population in the US really sees the contributions made by the space program, even though it's around them in their daily lives.