He is a rocket scientist. He works in Florida at The Cape beside the green-blue waters of the Atlantic where waves wash up on a sandy shore. He watched the Falcon 9 launch the other day. Here’s what he said.
It’s a beautiful rocket. It looked like something out of the 60s. It was beautiful.
And the room filled with nervous laughter.
Be careful, here. There’s plenty of bitterness going around to cloud anyone’s vision and put sour words in all our mouths. But consider the sentiment behind that statement: to be in the manned space business these days means little more than recreating capabilities from the past, rebuilding things that flew when we were just children, great things that turned our eyes skyward but (let’s face it) things that other people did in another time, fifty years ago. Imagine any other profession aspiring to the accomplishments of a half-century ago. There are certainly other good people who would argue with that interpretation of what’s going on, but the sentiment is widespread nevertheless.
It’s enough to make a cynic more cynical. Enough to make one contemplate (in dark night-thoughts) of a different line of work.