To Infinity and Beyond. Let’s GO!

Yeah, we’re excited about the Dragon Rocket launched by SpaceX at Cape Canaveral. It’s about damn time the USA was back in space with our own rockets.

As Americans, we grew up with NASA. The innovations created by and for NASA fueled American excellence and changed the world. We have no idea what we have yet to discover, but the possibilities really are….. infinite.

Sure, we’re all thankful for TANG instant beverage drink, LED display, Velcro, and Ice Cream Dots (all innovations brought to us by NASA along with hundreds of others), but yesterday, a pundit was talking to a NASA rep for the launch. Did you know they’re conducting experiments on the Space Station for artificial retinas in zero gravity? — No more glaucoma problems.

Imagine that…..amazing.

I was a kid in the 1960s, of course I wanted to be an astronaut. We all wanted to be astronauts. Yes, I had “I Dream of Jeannie” pajamas, but I wanted to be Major Nelson.

Dad brought home our family’s first Zenith color television, and the first thing we watched was The Flintstones……… but he bought it for the Apollo Landing on the Moon. The whole world watched that day and the event changed us all. It was a new age. Anything was possible. It’s one of my first memories.

It’s hard to explain the impact of the Apollo missions on someone who was born too late. Left alone to wander, a child’s mind is a wondrous thing… no constraints…… anything is possible….. and the Apollo landing PROVED to our generation that anything was possible…. AND that we could conquer it….. AND return, victorious.

As kids, I remember laying out in the middle of the back yard at night on a blanket, best girlfriend Dena by my side. After a few years of Apollo, by 3rd grade, we knew basic astronomy and could identify a few constellations. We would call them out, trying to impress one another….. but our discussion evolved around what it would be like to live on those planets. We ASSUMED we would be living on another planet….. and then…….. there were all those planets and stars we didn’t know anything about. We had to learn more. We were Girl Scouts, we had to “Be Prepared”, right?

Of course, we asked Santa for a telescope for Christmas….. we had to see what was going on up there! Of course, we had star charts on the back of our closet doors…….. right next to the Dawn Doll collection, Hot Wheels loop track, poster of Elvis, and our archeological dig tools. Saturday afternoons were spent at the Museum of Science and Industry, and we couldn’t wait for the next episode of Star Trek, or the Jetsons, followed by Soul Train on Saturday morning….. because we still had to know how to dance.

Dad read science fiction for pleasure and constantly fueled our speculation. He was great help, guiding us, pushing us. What if the aliens weren’t nice? We designed new weapons, new space suits, new cars, new houses, new space cities. What would we discover? What if we could double the elements on our chemistry chart on the back of the door in the Basement Bathroom? What if we could develop new energy sources? Since we needed oxygen and water to live, what if we could invent a new way to breath…… we discussed it ad nauseum during swimming lessons…. since we knew astronauts trained in the water. What if we could focus on the specific gravity of an object and travel TO IT, without other gravity getting in the way? It’s something I STILL wonder about….. And like our parents had a map for vacations, we planned trips to other planets and stars. We were SURE our first cars would be flying cars. We were ready to revolutionize transportation. When I took my first flight on a plane and got my Delta Wings…… I was sure was about 1/2 astronaut already!!

To a kid, anything is possible, but we grew up and we still had wanderlust.

NASA played a big role in my life, on and off, throughout the years. When Challenger exploded, I rushed home and could still see the plume from the top of my high rise condo in Ft Lauderdale. We all cried that day….. “the surly bonds of earth”.

The Gifted program at the school next to my home named the Endeavor Space Shuttle. The entire town took possession of their effort to raise funds as the kids went to the Cape for the Launch and then the White House to meet the President. The Shuttle missions were interesting, but it wasn’t………. MARS!

As a young B&B owner, I helped to form the first B&B Association for our state. I was the VP of the northern region. The members referred to me as “Daughn, the Good Witch of the North”. The VP for the center region was Bill, a retired astrophysicist from NASA, who bought a B&B “to settle down in his old age”. This was a guy who was in the control room during Apollo 11 and other Apollo missions. He was a tough old bird and predisposed to “disdain of flighty and emotional women”, as Bill explained it. Bill didn’t play well on a committee, very definitive in his opinions, but he made me laugh. He was socially awkward because he was too smart. I couldn’t help myself though and kept asking him about Apollo, and he loved to talk. We became fast friends, spending hours together, swapping intense stories, howling with laughter, and cooking together. Bill moved mountains on my behalf when I wasn’t even looking. We lost a good man when he died. Strange…… after Bill died, his wife came to spend a week with me. She said she wanted to be with me, because it was like being with him. Maybe Bill rubbed off on me more than I know…..

As a young mother, I took my son to the Cape several times…. We explored every nook and crany of the launch facility, but my little one just didn’t have the same spirit. By then, America was quiet on space exploration. I tried to instill in him the same sense of wonderment with NASA posters, NASA clothing, NASA Space Camp, additional classes in orbital mechanics in Birmingham, Robotics, and he even won a NASA grant and served as an Ambassador for the Mars Rover. Pretty cool for a teenager…….. and it was weird. When he won the grant from NASA for robotics, the town reacted in the same way as the Endeavor……….. everyone was excited, people stopped him in the grocery store to ask questions and see if they could get their kids involved. It was…. dare I say it….. general consensus. Every American loved the idea of space exploration, and wanted to help NASA figure out how we could go back………… and go further.

I’ll never forget it….. First year my son was involved in NASA robotics, we were at a regional competition in New Orleans. I was just the mom, along for the ride to make sandwiches and make sure the kids were safe. I was the accountant and knew nothing of mechanics and electricity…..my son spoke a new engineering/computer code language which I didn’t understand. The kids’ expertise surpassed me long ago, but they were struggling in their first year. In a moment of frustration caused by inexperience, our “team” was fighting and yelling at each other. The outburst was ugly.

In the midst of the chaos, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an older, portly man with bushy white hair across the aisle, working under his team tent……. He strained because of the size of his belly, leaning over a large robot with a wrench in his hand… His team banner said they were from South Carolina, and we would be competing against their team. His eyes met mine and he smiled, like a Cheshire cat with a secret. He knew something I needed to know. I crossed the aisle and asked him for help…. on behalf of the kids. He stopped what he was doing and helped us for over two hours. He and the kids practically rebuilt our robot on the fly from the ground up, with both teams watching and helping.

Something mystical happened in those two hours. My son hung on his every word, they spoke the same language, intuitively worked together like hand and glove. Gee whiz, that never happened before….. The man from South Carolina was a soothsayer, a magic man, when it came to robots. He explained things so easily even I understood him(and that’s saying something). I bought his team lunch to say “thank you” for the help, but I was curious about the mystery man. Most team mentors are dads from local engineering companies. Since our company did a little bit of work in South Carolina, I asked him what firm he was with, maybe hoping to throw him some future business. He replied, “Oh no, Mam, I don’t work for an engineering firm.” I was puzzled…… because he was so good at what he did. The expertise and comfort level were apparent. I pushed….

“What do you do in South Carolina?”, I said. I wondered if this man was tinkering in his garage, creating something fantastic, only to be discovered by an errant venture capitalist. The man from South Carolina had unknown power and it oozed from his fingertips. He smiled slowly and hung his head, “Oh no, Mam, I retired from NASA long ago.”………. and then he added, “I was the one who designed the robotic arm for the International Space Station.” ……

Wut? Beg Pardon?

Wait a minute….. the realization washed over me in a fraction of a second. We were at a robotics competition as a Cinderella team, no money and no experience, competing against a team whose mentor designed the robotic arm for the International Space Station? I wanted to throw up, but I couldn’t help myself, I was too excited.

I froze at the sight of him. Involuntarily, my periphery vision faded as I zeroed in on his face. My eyes do that about once every five years, and it’s usually something big happening at the moment. I’m mentally aware of what my eyes do, but can’t stop it. My body reacts, my heart races, and I can hear better, too. I think it’s something like a spider does when he sees a fly, like a hyper-focus.

At that moment, my eyes practically came out of my head. I could feel the goosebumps rise on my arms and legs. I was in the presence of greatness…… this bushy-haired Santa Claus from South Carolina was within my reach. The tears were welling up in my eyes. I was overwhelmed. Everything that was in me as an 8yr old kid laying on a blanket in the back yard rushed to the current moment. I threw my arms around his neck, I was practically vomiting emotions and gratefulness…………. I just wanted to touch him, thank him, ……know everything about him.

My son and the other boys picked up on my sudden exuberance. Sure, we gave a laudable performance for the competition, but were privileged to spend the next three days swapping NASA stories with a modern Mechanical Engineering version of Santa Claus. We learned many of HIS team members didn’t know about his experience. He didn’t talk about it much—- like a WW2 veteran doesn’t talk about the war. Yet, I was a blubbering idiot and kept intruding on his privacy. It was like the difference between reading about WW2 in a book, or talking to a veteran who was really at the Battle of the Bulge, the Gates of Auschwitz, or the march at Bataan. He was there and he made it all so real. The way he spoke about discovery, trial and error………. and try again……….. was a valuable lesson for all. “Failure is not an option” at NASA. It was a monumental experience for me and all the boys. Better than three days at any ole North Pole. It was our friendship which took my son back to Red Arsenal for Orbital Mechanics.

Lesson learned = Never be afraid to cross the aisle and ask for help. We will need the old guys for expertise, and we need the kids for zeal and wonderment……. and new ideas.

Has too much time passed? The same stars and planets are still there, waiting on us.

We wept as the last Space Shuttle was hauled up the interstate in California to a museum. Dreams of my childhood, dead. We were all stuck on earth, our wings were clipped.

And then SpaceX was born. And President Trump created a Space Force. Maybe?

Strange….. I wandered around outside, late last night, staring up at the sky, picking out a few constellations, just like I did as a kid. I thought about childhood chum, Dena. What was she was thinking today? Was she outside, staring up at the sky, thinking the same thing?

I’m a grandmother now, but I still have the scrapbooks I created of the Apollo missions. I got them out yesterday. They’re photo albums, with covers in mod colors popular during the 60’s, filled with neatly trimmed newspaper clippings and the terse penmanship of my youth. As I turned the pages, in a flash, I was 8 years old again, filled with the same enthusiasm, eager for discovery. In my mind, I’m still the great and noble warrior, ready to captain the Enterprise. In my mind, I can still see the new cities Dena and I built.

Bet your ass, I would fly into space………. in a heartbeat.

The human spirit never dies, and our desire to explore beyond the horizon will never cease.

Can’t wait until the Saturday launch.

Let’s go!