Nostalgia

When I was a little girl, growing up in the 70's and 80's, I wanted to be like Carl Sagan, and I wanted to be an astronaut. At the time, I wanted to be the first female astronaut, because we still hadn't had one yet. One of the biggest thrills of my young life was watching the space shuttle lift off, and every time it happened, whether in school or at home, all eyes were on the T.V. set, watching these historic flights take off. It was a magical thing to me, all the smoke and fire, the explosion, not to destroy, but to propel into space. I always was in awe of how lucky - and brave - the astronauts were, to take these small steps into the universe, to see things in a different perspective, to learn more about what was out there.

I read alot as child (and I still do as an adult), but I never read science fiction. So any thoughts I had of the universe, of what could be, of what might be, were developed in my own mind, based on things I learned from science and watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos series on television. The possibilities were endless, and to this day I still hold out hope of finding other civilizations. Now with my love of Star Trek: The Next Generation and an admiration of science fiction I long for our space program to expand - for us to someday reach new worlds, and make first contact with a new species (and have it be a positive thing).

When the Challenger accident occurred in 1986, I was devastated. Not only for the loss of the lives of these brave souls, but for the effect it would have on our exploration of space. The space program recovered, and Columbia took to the skies. Unfortunately, we lost Columbia in 2003, and the space program was again halted in the wake of a horrible tragedy.

Now the Discovery stands ready, a 7-member crew stands prepared and waiting for launch on Wednesday, July 13th. I hope beyond hope that all goes well, and that the space program will continue into the future, in safety, and lead us...elsewhere.