Some sending real astronauts to the International Space Station and some giving celebrities a ten minute thrill ride to space and back.
Why?
I understand the experiments, such as establishing the James Webb Space Telescope and growing vegetables.
But why?
I recently read an article explaining how we need to continue exploring because we've messed up our planet so badly that we're going to need another place to go. We already have upwards of 100 trillion bits of space junk orbiting our atmosphere.
Again, why?
Many years ago, my husband Ken, like almost every person in Florida, loved the space program. Back then, we could see the Cape Canaveral rocket (about 50 miles away) take off from the middle of the street by our condo. One day we were watching a potential launch on television when Ken decided he wanted to see it from the street. He was very ill, suffering both physically and with dementia.
I was helping him get outside when I noticed something else going on. There was a relatively new stop sign at our corner and a lurking police officer had pulled over a woman who did not come to a complete stop. She was sitting in the car crying and yelling at the cop.
Oh oh, I wanted no part of this. After getting Ken out to a flat surface I said "you're on your own" and went back inside. I could see Ken shaking his cane and trying to tell them about the lift off.
After I watched it on the screen I looked back outside. The woman was out of the car and the three of them were standing in a row, looking toward the sky, with their backs to the stop sign. All three of them clapped when they witnessed the take off.
Maybe that's why.
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