{"id":7350,"date":"2014-12-06T04:15:28","date_gmt":"2014-12-06T04:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=7350"},"modified":"2014-12-06T04:15:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-06T04:15:28","slug":"thrill-returns-at-rocket-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=7350","title":{"rendered":"Thrill returns at rocket launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Orion Soars on First Flight Test\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UEuOpxOrA_0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A curious feeling came over me this morning as I watched the television screen.<\/p>\n<p>A rocket took off from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was carrying &#8212; on its maiden flight &#8212; the Orion spacecraft. The Delta rocket roared to life, spewing flame and roaring like a thousand freight trains, and then it lifted off slowwwwly into the sky.<\/p>\n<p>I began muttering under my breath: Come on, come one, come on.<\/p>\n<p>Then I realized something. I was smiling broadly, ear to ear. I was feeling a thrill similar to what I had watching astronauts blasting into space aboard their Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and space shuttle craft.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/videos\/orion-clears-first-hurdle-in-getting-to-mars\/<\/p>\n<p>Hey, this was a big launch today.<\/p>\n<p>Orion is being developed as the United States&#8217;s long-range vehicle that eventually will carry astronauts into deep space. I&#8217;m talking about Mars. Or perhaps to one of Jupiter&#8217;s moons. Or maybe to an asteroid.<\/p>\n<p>It flew two orbits around Earth this morning, then splashed safely and on target into the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll admit to being a sap when it comes to space flight. I&#8217;ve wept at the sight of rockets launching and at the sight of spacecraft re-entering the atmosphere. Heck, I&#8217;ve watched the film &#8220;Apollo 13&#8221; about, oh, 20 or 30 times and I still get misty when Jim Lovell tells NASA ground controllers that the spacecraft is coming home safely after that harrowing rescue mission in April 1970.<\/p>\n<p>Orion&#8217;s first manned flight is years away. Its maiden voyage to the great beyond is even farther into the future.<\/p>\n<p>I hope to be around to watch it take humans into our solar system. Yes, I&#8217;ll be crying.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A curious feeling came over me this morning as I watched the television screen. A rocket took off from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was carrying &#8212; on its maiden flight &#8212; the Orion spacecraft. The Delta rocket roared to life, spewing flame and roaring like a thousand freight trains, and then &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=7350\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Thrill returns at rocket launch<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[419,845,1327,1874,2610,2925,3002,3182,3454,4284,4306],"class_list":["post-7350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-apollo","tag-cape-canaveral","tag-delta-rocket","tag-gemini","tag-jupiter","tag-mars-flight","tag-mercury","tag-nasa","tag-orion","tag-skylab","tag-solar-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350","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=7350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}