JimmieJoe / KC6YRU

41 years ago.  Today.  I was watching it live on television, glued to the set.  Possibly the most exciting thing, the most promising, the most noble thing that ever happened in my life, before or since.  This one event will be the first thing remembered about our time centuries from now.  The wars, the changes, the technological advances…  all those will pale before these few days in 1969.

Watching it then, I expected Moon bases, space stations, and a mission to Mars by now.  The politics of the 60’s and 70’s ended those dreams before they were enacted, and the promise of my future off the planet was stillborn.  I’m still disgusted by the petty nonsense that ended those dreams, and replaced them with the chronically underfunded NASA programs that led to the Shuttle and International Space Station.  While the ISS is a good thing to have, and I’m glad we did it, it was done for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way.  The Space Station should have been a jumping off point for the Moon bases and Mars.  We’re doing a lot of good research there, and it’s important, but it’s not what I was expecting.

I should have been writing this blog from my apartment at Luna City, instead of my couch in Visalia.   Born too soon, I guess.