Monday, June 1, 2020

#MicroblogMondays: Take off, eh?

I'm a child of the space age. I was just a few months old when Alan Shepard became the first NASA astronaut to travel into space on May 5, 1961. I was 8 when the first human (Neil Armstrong) set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, and not quite 12 when the last one visited there.

(I will admit the novelty of those moonwalks wore off after a while. I remember being ticked off that my Saturday morning cartoons were cancelled for hours of astronaut coverage. ;)  (This was not a multichannel/PVR universe then either.) Still, I've always thought that if I'd known that last moon visit WAS the last one, I might have paid more attention....)  

Dh, for his part, was a huge NASA geek growing up, and was the founder and president of his junior high rocket club. :)

So we were both glued to the television set on Saturday when the Space X rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, headed for the International Space Station -- the first American rocket to take off from American soil with American astronauts in 10 years. I will admit to feeling a few chills, and even a few tears in my eyes. And being awestruck, watching the REUSABLE booster rocket return to earth just a few minutes later, and lower itself neatly onto a landing pad aboard a ship!!  Mindboggling!! 

However -- I couldn't resist posting on Facebook: 


(Perhaps you have to be a Canadian -- and perhaps a Canadian of a certain age -- to appreciate the reference?)(I just got a shock when I realized this is going back FORTY YEARS now!!) 


I checked on Twitter, and I wasn't the only one...! ;) 


Beauty, eh?  ;) 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here

5 comments:

  1. It was pretty cool. And weird to watch given everything else that is happening. Almost feels like a time-warp to the 1960s.

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    1. I saw a tweet today that said "Really don’t understand why 2020 is trying to be 1918 and 1968 at the same time."

      I always thought I should have been a few years older, because it would have been so cool to go to protests & stuff like that in the 1960s. I don't think that anymore!!

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  2. I'm with you on being a child of the space age, and my DH has been following it all avidly.

    I distinctly remember being at school, and crowding around the radio (no TVs at school then) listening to Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon. I knew it was momentous, and that it was more important to my teacher than I quite understood at the time!

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  3. Oh, and PS - I have no idea who Bob and Doug were/are! Not surprising, considering.

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