to the moon, again
Over the past couple days, I've been closely following the track of the Orion spaceship and its Integrity crew module, and it's been a surprisingly emotional ride.
I was 9 years old on that July day in 1969 when a human being first set foot on the moon; I don't recall watching it on television (we didn't have a t.v. set at the time, which was a rarity in the Davao City of the 1960s) but it was all over the radio and newspapers that day, and on the days before and after Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface. Sometime during the following year, on their global tour, the 3 Apollo 11 astronauts stopped by Manila, and the reception was just like the Beatles, some years earlier. ::chuckle::
Even as on this journey of Artemis II humans won't be landing on the moon, it will be close enough; and also, it will be the farthest out in space that humans will have ever ventured, so that record will be set.
Looking at the images of the astronauts, the video of the liftoff the other day, the live feed from this morning of a chat with the crew, it's clear that these people are friends. How could it not be, as they have spent so much time with each other preparing for this journey, and everything that it means? If only our tribalism was not so pronounced, this would be an epic event for all of humanity, and not just for Americans and Canadians.
Still, in these 4 human beings, one can find a locus of hope and a postive, forward-looking ethos. May the rest of their journey be safe and their labors in that little vessel transcendent.
[ Images of the moon on my late night constitutional, along Lombard Street... ]
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