To Space and Back

Blue Origin Liftoff
July 20, 2021

It is the stuff that from which dreams are made--walking up the gantry, launching in a rocket, flying into space and then returning safely to Earth.

Yesterday four humans did just that--to space and back in 10 short minutes. 

Jeff Bezos and three others went into space--the final frontier, in a rocket that he had built and tested--the Blue Origin. It was like a scene from an old Evel Knievel stunt where he flies his motorcycle over ten semi-trailer trucks. 

Except, this worked. 

And now space tourism begins--the opportunity to launch into space and become an astronaut. 

I watched hoping and praying that it would work. We need a hero right now. With all that is happening in the country and the world mired in a pandemic that will not quit--we needed some good news. And we received it. Space has become closer.

I remember watching with held breath 52 years ago yesterday as Neil Armstrong jumped off the Lunar Lander onto the surface of the Moon. It seemed that the promise of space and space travel had arrived. But, in reality, it had not. Getting into space requires extraordinary effort and since the end of the Apollo Program in 1972, no human has stepped foot on the dusty Moon. 

Maybe again someday soon. 

Maybe as of yesterday the dream is again alive and, hopefully, it will not be overtaken by world events.

Maybe, just maybe we can join with Buzz Lightyear and truly believe in "to infinity and beyond."

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD