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TheHeretic -> Death in the Desert: A Noble Cause (7/28/2007 9:03:24 AM)
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A few years back, I walked out into my front yard and stared up into the sky. This is a good place to do that. It's one of the few places in the world you'll see a stealth bomber or fighter and not need to kiss your ass goodbye. Sudden explosions that shake the earth beneath you and rattle the windows are common and draw no real notice (though it's fun to watch people who've never heard a sonic boom, before). You never know what you'll see.
That day was a bit different. I was waiting to watch a tiny piece of history unfold. Finally, the contrail of the mothership appeared, then a second contrail, going up. Civilians had just launched a manned rocket into space for completely peaceful reasons. The technology is a radical departure from how man has gone into space before. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne ) Things like this are among the reasons I consider capitalism the better system, but that is another topic entirely. I watched the landing on TV, and the felt the sonic boom when it came home.
The explosion last week wasn't a sonic boom though. Something went wrong during a test, and three people died. I believe they died for something.
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/198908.html
Scoffers might be wondering by now where I get the "noble" in the thread title. "Tourism?" they might say. They might sneer that the people involved are just out to make money. I'd say, "so what?" Bold visionaries are trying to expand the limits of what humans can do, stretching for the great leap forward. If they have to get the money by offering the prospect of sex in zero-G, I'm ok with that. Human progress isn't cheap.
Here's a link to the current project they were working on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipTwo.
Voyages of discovery aren't going to be safe. I hope the guys who lost their lives are properly remembered.
(and you thought this topic was going to be something else entirely, didn't you?)
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