Flight of the Endeavor (grounding of a dream)

On November 14^th, at 7:55 pm, I watched the last night shuttle launch of, what will most likely be, my life time. Unless you have seen a night launch in person, it is impossible to imagine the power, beauty, and pride that is associated with it. Even watching from an hour and a half car ride away the sky lights up red with ambitious light and in just seconds, from beyond the horizon created with the silhouettes of beachside resorts, the Endeavor emerged. It carried behind it a trail of flame which shown like a beacon of hope to all of mankind. It raced across the sky at an angle and passed right before us making its way to the outer reaches of our atmosphere. As it passed by I thought of those onboard, the hopes and dreams they carried with them, where we would go from here, and I wished them Godspeed.

I do believe, as well as many others, that the space shuttles are based on old technology, are not safe, and not economical. They are in desperate need of retirement and the Orion rockets will be a great replacement. The sad part is that, for those of us who grew in times of Star Wars and Star Trek, the space shuttle was an infantile form of a starship in the making. It made space travel seem as easy as getting on a plane. It was easy to imagine that we would soon be flying to space station for vacation, owning time share on the moon, or exploring the reaches of our own galaxy. There is a part of me that actually dreamed that I could walk around wearing cloak with a light saber attached to my hip before I died. Of course these things are not reality and they certainly won't happen in my lifetime. The new rockets will bring us closer to making such things possible, but it was the essence of the space shuttle that allowed us to dream that they were. That night, the Endeavor raced towards space; as I watched it, my dreams were grounded.