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Deep Space Thinking

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Captain Imperfecto and the Space Shuttle Discover at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia

January 8th, 2014

I was weak kneed but I did my best to stand up by leaning on the thin metal railing. My hands hung over the side while the cool metal pressed against my skin. I gazed upwards. As if I were begging for food. What I sight before me.

I was in front of one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. My eyes traced the outlines of this beauty’s curves caused me to blush with embarrassment.  But I never looked away. I was captivated and I didn’t care who looked at me with curious smirks.

My eyes watered with tears as my emotions began to take over. My childhood love affair was in front of me. It was the space shuttle Discovery located at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Chantilly, VA.
It could have been any of the three remaining space shuttles, really, and my emotions would have remained the same. After years of an adolescent love affair with the space program I could almost touch its black and white surface.  I really could have extended my arms out and touched it. But it wasn’t worth being tackled by security. Now in hindsight maybe it was? I must admit, I did think about it.

This space shuttle represented to me everything that a childhood dream could be. I liked sports when I was a kid. I wanted to an actor or a writer someday. Which still resonates in me. But living in Florida my whole life and seeing that huge vehicle being hurled into space was more of a reality for me. The space program was practically in my own backyard and if I applied myself maybe I could be on it someday.

Of course I was never on that plane like structure and I never did become an astronaut but my dreams still remained. Even now as an adult. I still have fond memories of my youth when we would take field trips with my school to Cape Canaveral in Titusville Florida to do tours of the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) facility.  Or take road trips with the family.

After the tour of the space grounds we would visit the gift store. There I would buy post cards with the shuttle printed on them. The spacecraft would be placed differently on each one. One post card capturing the shuttle in outer space. An action shot of it launching from the launch pad. Or one of my favorite pictures that depict the shuttle sitting atop a 747 as it was being flown back to the space assembly building. I would chow down on freeze-dried ice cream that was labeled space food. I couldn’t get enough.

One of my fondest memories of the space shuttle was watching it from my house two hundred miles away. Yes it can be seen. The night launches were the best. My family and I would sit outside and look to the north. We had our sweet spot picked out. It was the one area we could see the shuttle rush towards space unobstructed.

The sky was dark but sadly the stars could hardly be seen due to the light pollution casting light into the hemisphere. My family and I wouldn’t know if the shuttle launched or if it was scrubbed mission due to mechanical problems until a large glow would appear out of nowhere. It was as if the sun was rising from the north instead of the east. The large glow would raise higher and higher like a candle like structure its force punching a hole into the canopy of the night sky. Not one of us spoke. Not my older brother, who was silent anyhow. My middle brother, who would sing out of the blue at times or my chatter box sister. We sat silently in our lawn chairs in aw.

The shuttle would slowly become sucked into deep space disappearing into zero gravity. My brothers and sisters mouth slowly opening due to the gravity left behind. It was truly amazing to witness such a sight.

Space was never a dream that came true for me but standing, now feet before the space shuttle Discovery, was a dream come true in the end.



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