Atlantis Launch: Look What We Can Do

This morning, I watched the final launch of a space shuttle.  We have a remarkable, resourceful IT department at the company for which I work.  They managed to get the NASA feed onto a conference room television.  It was great fun watching the launch pad prepare for lift off...the shuttle actually lift off... the two smaller tanks separate... the shuttle rotate with the earth in the background... and finally the main tank separate and seeing the shuttle rise up in the background.  God's speed!

During an episode of one of my favorite television programs, Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night, one of the characters goes to see the Lion King on Broadway.  Thereafter she exclaims, "I didn't know we could do that!"  Having felt that wonder at seeing that musical myself, I understood the full force of her statement.  It has resonated with me ever since and I often find myself saying "look what we can do" at times when my amazement at human creativity and ingenuity overwhelms my misanthropic self.  How could one not feel this way when listening to Mozart, when gazing at van Gogh's Starry Night, when standing on China's Great Wall, and on and on.

Watching Atlantis this morning I said, Look what we can do!"

Many often complain about the cost of the space program.  I never have.  Listening to NPR yesterday, a scientist said that no significant earthly problem could conceivably be solved by spending this money elsewhere.  Regardless of the veracity of this statement, I understand his greater point.  Moreover, a great many scientific discoveries have emerged from our space program, including the very small size of the computer on which I am typing this post.  That it sits near my feet rather than filling ten rooms behind me is a direct result of the Apollo program.  And we need this sense of wonder, this discovery as a species.  It makes us better, richer in spirit, broader in intellect.

China and India are ramping up for a huge expansion in their space programs, including manned flights.  Perhaps one day they will go to the moon.  I say more power to them.  The cause of humanity will be advanced thereby.  Chinese, Indian, or American, I will say, "Look what we can do."



8 July 2011