{"id":18464,"date":"2016-12-09T01:14:47","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T01:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18464"},"modified":"2016-12-09T01:14:47","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T01:14:47","slug":"lets-get-back-into-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18464","title":{"rendered":"Let’s get back into space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"space_flight-wide\"<\/a><\/p>\n

John Glenn’s death reminded many of us old enough to remember such things about how space travel once thrilled the nation.<\/p>\n

It was a new thing back then, when Glenn orbited the planet three times in just a little less than five hours. We were riveted to our TV screens. We held our breath. We prayed for the safe return of these men.<\/p>\n

Then, oh so strangely, space flight became “routine.” Routine! <\/em>Are you kidding me?<\/p>\n

How ridiculous! You put human beings on top of a missile loaded with flammable fuel, light the rocket and hurl these humans into orbit at 17,000 mph. That becomes routine?<\/p>\n

We launched men into orbit during the Mercury space program. Then came the Gemini program that featured two-person space ships. After that, it was the big one, the Apollo program that sent men to the moon.<\/p>\n

Those missions became so “routine” that the space agency stopped sending men to the moon, apparently believing they had done all they could do.<\/p>\n

Skylab came later. The space shuttle program followed that.<\/p>\n

About six years ago, we grounded the remaining shuttle fleet — after two of the ships, Challenger and Columbia, were lost, killing 14 crew members. Routine? Hardly.<\/p>\n

I’m recalling the adventure associated with John Glenn’s first flight into space and hoping for a time when we can send human beings back into space aboard our own rocket ships. Today, we’re relying on Russia to ferry our men and women into Earth orbit — and I’m trying to imagine how President Kennedy, who challenged the nation to put men on the moon by the end of the 1960s,\u00a0would react that knowledge.<\/p>\n

I came of age watching the space program take flight. I am old enough to remember how these missions forced us all to hold our breath when these heroes were thrown into space.<\/p>\n

The next step awaits. It no doubt will involve sending humans way past the moon and toward places like Mars. I hope to live long enough to see that occur.<\/p>\n

I will wait anxiously for a day when we can view spaceflight once again as the spine-tingling adventure it’s always been.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Glenn’s death reminded many of us old enough to remember such things about how space travel once thrilled the nation. It was a new thing back then, when Glenn orbited the planet three times in just a little less than five hours. We were riveted to our TV screens. We held our breath. We … Continue reading Let’s get back into space<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[6727,6726,2460,2533,6725,3182,4284,6724,4346,4347],"class_list":["post-18464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-apollo-progam","tag-gemini-program","tag-jfk","tag-john-glenn","tag-mercury-program","tag-nasa","tag-skylab","tag-space-flight","tag-space-race","tag-space-shuttle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18466,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18464\/revisions\/18466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}