I've always been interested in space and space exploration. Seeing what's out there beyond our tiny, little world is just amazing. Other have describe it far more poetically that I ever could (For example, Carl Sagan in Pale Blue Dot). I love looking up and wondering "How far does it go?" and "How far will we go?"
I was born in 1982, 10 years after we last walked on the Moon. Since that time, humans have been in Low Earth Orbit. Our unmanned spacecraft have done wonderful, amazing things: Cassini, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, Voyagers 1 and 2, New Horizons, and how many more that I can't think of right now. But it always felt like something was missing.
I've watched a lot of shows and specials on the 1960s space program. Even though I wasn't alive, I could still feel fear that the Soviets inspired in us with Sputnik and listened to my Dad's stories about it, the inspiration in the challenge that President Kennedy laid out, the thrill of watching the Saturn V heave off of the launch pad, the awe at the first pictures of Earth from Lunar orbit, and the anticipation of the first live pictures from the Moon. What a time that would have been to be alive.
But watching now, it always feels like something is missing. We went to the moon. We've walked on another celestial body. Left flags, footprints, and buggies behind. Proof that we were there. And now, Low Earth Orbit. I'm not trying to belittle the science and research being done on the International Space Station. What we're learning is invaluable. But it felt like we had sailed in the ocean that is universe to the next island over and now we were afraid to leave the coast line.
Following the Return to Flight after Columbia (STS-107), I watched very shuttle launch, either on TV or online (I never made it to Florida to watch an actual launch). They had already announced the program was ending so I wanted to get as many in as I could. Every one was exciting and a thrill to watch. We're going to take 6 or 7 people and strap them in to this thing smaller than an 747 and fling it out of this world and have it orbit around for a while, then come back and land. It's an amazing thing and was always so much fun to watch.
While watching Atlantis launch for the final time on STS-135, one of my friends and I lamented the lack of America's ability to send astronauts into space. Sure the country had been there before, without a manned vehicle, in the gap between Apollo and the Shuttle, but this seemed different. There was still a desire to go and explore and spend the money to do so then. In the political climate in 2010, there didn't seem like there was much hope. That didn't improve as time went on and budget cuts struck deeper.
I never really had faith that Orion would launch. I wanted it to. Badly. But I didn't want to get my hopes up. As time went on and more and more of it came together more and more of me started to believe "maybe we can do this". The cross country trip to Kennedy Space Center, a tour of where we were going. Then finally in June of this year, the drop test happened. To me, that was the biggest sign yet maybe we could do this. When the rocket was turned vertical in October and the mating completed in November, it was inevitable. Orion would fly, and soon.
Watching that launch was incredible. Just amazing. I mean, rocket launches are never boring, but there was something more to this one. This is the capsule that will carry humans back to the Moon. It will carry humans to an asteroid. It will carry humans to Mars. It was inspiring. Then finally, to hear that call to fire the second stage and leave Low Earth Orbit. The first time a human rated craft has done that in 42 years. Amazing.
I realize there is still a lot of time for things to go wrong. The first human flight isn't planned for another 7 years in 2021 on EM-2. Plenty of time for this to get scrapped, budgets yanked away, or any number of other things to go wrong. But after today it almost has an air of inevitability about it. For the first time since I've been alive, I truly believe we'll go back to the Moon and beyond. We'll be able to go to Mars and find the rovers we've sent there. And what a selfie that'll be: an astronaut with their hand draped around Curiosity's mast cam.
So here's to exploring, to dreaming, to daring to do the things that are hard, to the struggles along the way that we will overcome, and most importantly to the joys of discovery that are out there beyond our pale blue dot.
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