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William D. Randall's Blog (of no particular interest to no one in particular)
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"We Have Just Begun to Fight...." Winston Churchill "Audentes Fortuna Juvat" - "Fortune Favors the Bold"
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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
"Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!" I have always been a big fan of the Space Shuttle. The thrill of exploration and the need for the human race to escape the grasp of Earth's gravity have been present ever since Jules Verne wrote about space travel in the 1800's. Personally I've been bitten by the exploration bug, attending both Space Camp and Space Academy. My Grandfather worked on the Apollo Moon Landing program, and I have friends with the Air Force who worked with the Vandenberg Launch Site Task Force, while the Air Force was considering a West Coast Launch site to put the shuttle in a polar orbit. I have also had the opportunity to meet aviation pioneers Paul McCreedy and John Glenn. Name any price, and I would gladly pay it to ride into space. Tomorrows return to space is going to be thrilling, yet bittersweet, as it marks the Space Shuttle's return to flight and the start of the five year phaseout of the Shuttle Program. I hope NASA will have a replacement in less then five years, but the Shuttle program itself was plagued by delays, cost overruns, and bureaucratic mismanagement which lead to it's first launch in 1981, rather then in the mid 1970's. Anybody look at how the ISS is being managed lately? The Return to Flight, while it drags up painful memories of the Columbia disaster, may be enough to reengage the public on the need for spaceflight and provide a reason to study physics, math, and other sciences while in school. I would much rather have billions of dollars invested in space exploration for the pursuit of knowledge, rather then the military in the pursuit of destruction. Go Discovery! 
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