Am I alone in feeling distraught about the impending end of the NASA Space Shuttle programme? It resonates so sadly with my teenage memories of the ending of the Apollo missions that revealed that they had been more to do with Cold War rivalry than a credible global ambition to take our species into our extraterrestrial destiny.
I stood in awe and watched the shuttle taking off some years ago in Titusville and celebrated afterwards in the Dogs 'r' Us bar and diner where some of those that make it happen pop in after work. I really feel for the 40+ thousand people who make the most impressive technological and scientific phenomenon in human history work again and again as they face an uncertain future they do not deserve.
If only there was some way to keep them flying, not just because of the contribution they make to science, but because they are iconic, inspirational symbols of everything I, perhaps naively, thought our human future was all about. I know the money's tight in the US and elsewhere but some things are beyond cost. These things become the secular equivalent of sacred objects, inspiring and guiding young people around the world away from superstition and brainwashing and leading them to science, reason and free-thinking. How important is that? Vital I would say.
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