WASHINGTON —
At a little after 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the American space program, literally and metaphorically, touched down for the last time at Dulles International airport near Washington DC.
Piggybacked on a Boeing 747 known as “Lizzie,” the Space Shuttle Discovery made its final flight, closing the door on the last tangible icon of our manned space program.
Discovery will now takes its place at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, where hopefully it will do more than mark the end of the “late great” American Space Program while it gathers dust.
Our space program has always been the one government endeavor where successes were celebrated, and tragedies mourned, by every American regardless of politic stripes or ideologically leanings.
NASA is always the first agency to feel the steel of budget slicing. It is too easy to argue that we have problems and priorities that need to be dealt with today on earth — and with the very limited resources available here on earth.
Cynics often look at the exploration of space — where the benefits may or may not be reaped for generations down the road — as being as productive as debating the philosophical conundrum of “determining how many angels could live on the head of pin.”
But ultimately, aren’t these a our better angels? Aren’t we at our best when as Robert Browning said, “A man’s reach exceeds his grasp?”
Much of our current technology was developed in concert with the space program, all to help man create a way to get closer to satisfying his timeless desire to understand what is beyond the stars. If the space program simply becomes a commercial endeavor where progress is measured on a balance sheet, then the vision of innovators and dreamers will always take a backseat to the whims of the bean counters.
One of the last things the Discovery did was take a victory lap high above the National Mall and Capitol.
Like an aging slugger coming to bat for the last time, Discovery got one last well-deserved ovation, not because of what it is today, but what it reminds us about our past and what could still be in our future.
So where should the space program be going in the future? No one seems quite sure, but perhaps with a nod to Captain James T. Kirk, it should head for “the second star to right and straight on till morning.”
Columns
Our better angels still lay beyond the stars
- Columns
-
-
Stop acting like sports are life and death
I’ve followed sports for much of my 27 years on earth, but one inescapable fact has caught my attention lately - sports make people crazy. You can't get around the fact that rooting for your favorite team can enrage you and turn you into a ravenous sports junkie. Passion isn’t always a bad thing, but combined with hatred for the rival of your favorite team can turn into something ugly and disgusting.
-
A confession directly from Genoa City, Wis.
I am a confessed hopeless addict. And, after a conversation this week, even my co-workers know the ugly truth. I rarely go an entire week without catching up on my soap opera - The Young and the Restless.
-
Quite simply less is more
Money can’t buy happiness, or at least that’s what you have been told. In Major League Baseball there has been a hot debate on when and how much should a team spend to improve the team on the field.
-
Daviess County talent runs deep
Oakland City University head men’s basketball coach Dr. Mike Sandifar has a long and successful career.
He has a combined high school and college mark of 631-383 and is 427-234 at Oakland City in a career that covers 1987-1999 and 2003-2013. -
The thrill of the grass
In the spring, they say a young man’s fancy turns to — baseball.
-
Jackie still a hero after all these years
Too often in our society we put elite athletes on a pedestal so high that they are referred to as heroes and we talk about the so-called adversity they face. This, of course, is laughable on every level.
-
A lifelong love of golf
It was an unusually cold, snowy day in April as I looked out the window at the clubhouse nearly 20 years ago.
Winter was hanging on, and golf on that particular Monday was not going to happen. -
All she needs is GPS, notebook
Lately some residents may have seen an out-of-county car driving aimlessly around town in search of some destination that even the youngest kiddo could find in a matter of seconds. That car would be mine, and the driver, who on occasion has nearly turned the wrong way down one way streets would be me, Lindsay Owens. Fear not though. I have GPS and a collection of maps Columbus would have envied.
-
At home - at Last
Today, on the Korean peninsula, missiles are pointed, troops are being amassed and political temperatures are reaching the boiling point.
-
IU still working towards sixth banner
Monday night in Atlanta, Louisville won the school’s first National Championship since the year I was born - 1986. This accomplishment is significant to Indiana basketball fans, because the last two times the Cardinals cut down the nets (1980, 1986), the Hoosiers did it the following year. The stat, of course means nothing, other than both schools had strong programs in the 1980s.
- More Columns Headlines
-
Stop acting like sports are life and death
Raw: Kevin Durant Tours Moore After $1M Pledge
Weiner Launches Bid to Become NYC Mayor
Okla. Teens Get Video of Deadly Tornado Overhead
Man Shot While Questioned in Boston Probe
School Storm Protection Spotty in Tornado Zones
9-year-old Tornado Victim Loved Family, Singing
Moore Native Toby Keith Tours Tornado Damage
Oklahoma Survivors, Heroes Survey Damage
Okla. City Mayor: Up to 13K Homes Hit by Tornado
Raw: Aftermath of Deadly Attack in London
Paperless Scanner, Vision of the Future
Florida FBI Shooting Has Boston Bombing Links
Garcetti Elected Los Angeles Mayor Over Greuel
Raw: New Video of Deadly Oklahoma Tornado
IRS Official Pleads 5th Amendment
Lawyer: Feds Investigating Susan Powell Case
