Thursday, October 2, 2008

50 years of NASA

With all the turmoil in the financial markets, I almost forgot about one of the noblest achievements mankind ever reached, that is, the exploration of the infinite space that surrounds our planet. I am referring to the foundation of NASA 50 years ago as of yesterday that has been definitely the most important event in the history of exploration of the universe. Visit the NASA homepage for a comprehensive browsing of their achievements in their first 50 years of existence. Mind boggling! If you just stood still upon some of their achievements. They put a man in orbit 4 years after works started in October 1958. They then put a man (two actually) on the moon 7 years later. Try to match that performance.

Looking at some of these pictures and clips on NASA's 50 year timeline gives me a nostalgic feeling as they bring back memories when I was watching those early achievements during my first 18 years. I was nine when John Glenn orbited the earth and I remember this all too well. Sixteen when Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. Most of the NASA spectacular results in those early days appealed so much, almost romantically, to so many of my generation that we ended up falling in love with physics and math at school and dreamed to eventually pick-up careers in Engineering and Science. My moment of Zen happened in 1999 when I met and even had my picture taken with both of them, two of the Apollo 13 heroes. Later generations were more into computers and making money in dot.com's and here we are today, preparing for the Deep D Version 2. God forbid!

Anyways, the Senate didn't 'Kill Bill' this time, good for them and all of us, and it's now about waiting the egotripping retards of the House, so full of themselves, to cast their vote hopefully tomorrow. As the weight of a worldwide public opinion rests on their shoulders, 'Nay' voters feel just great... the word even has it that some über-moronic among them who voted 'Yea' the first time are 'reconsidering' their intents... Talking of monumental a-holes... take a look at each one of them in Wikipedia and start spitting your monitor screen. Who TF they think they are? I guess the US should change its rules of admission to Congress and impose a compulsory, albeit elementary, IQ tests to candidates for a seat in the Lower House. It might have saved us all this week's pain and misery after all...

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