The mystery and majesty are still there

[pmrid (Peter)]

I was reflecting on a couple of threads here - the one dealing with the New Horizons mission to Pluto, the Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta, and heroic Philae and its faithful minder Rosetta and finally (althugh I'm sure there's more) the thread about the RocketsNZ developments and their hopes for a future as a launch vehicle specialist.

What struck me about these discussions was that they have rekindled in me (and I reckon in many, many others) some of that magic and excitement we knew way back when we started going to the moon if not earlier.

I had a mental flashback to the times, as a much younger man, I stayed awake and listened awestruck to the power and might of those gigantic Saturn C5s as they hurled astronauts towards the moon. The sheer mass of the noise was so great that you felt it as a positive force against your chest. The only other time I've encountered anything so intense was when I accidentally happened into a Bascilica in Rome where a major organ recital was in rehearsal and the principal organist struck up a Bach Toccatta and Fugue in D on an organ the size of Tasmania. It was utterly awesome - the more so for being purely accidental yet so perfectly timed.

There is a level of new excitement in the air about these new missions and New Horizons has it all. I'm a kid again listening in the early morning hours for the voice of Cape Kennedy.

Peter

[iborg (Philip)]

Lucky bugger! I'm too young (just) to have a memory of those days.

Whenever, I see the footage of those first steps, I always have to stop and watch.

[Spookyer (Brett)]

I am just after the moon landing myself Peter but understand what you mean, exploration is certainly an exciting and wonderous undertaking.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Agreed, there seems to be a rekindling of the enthusiasm that used to be. I listened on my transistor radio while at work to the broadcast of the first moon landing. I have cuttings from the local newspapers ( remember them ?) on the first satellite launches, man in orbit, Gemini launch ....