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Posted this to marylynnedittmar.com, but like it so much I decided to cross-post, along with the explanation.

I was listening to air-to-ground transmissions between Mission Control in Houston and Space Shuttle Atlantis, available at NASA TV.  I was on headphones, reading, listening to the exchange between flight controllers and crew, while revisiting the discovery of modern human footprints dating back 117,000 years.

Here is what the muse brought.

“All the Signs Were There”

Walking on the beach,
sinking her feet into rain-soaked sand,
she moved toward the sea.

Aware of all surrounding her,
the smell of the storm receding,
leading her to follow.

Others remained behind,
nurturing the tribe,
releasing her to Lorelei.

Her lineage established,
beyond her ken.
Children she would never know.

In the bones of her face,
tomorrow lingered - as fingers played;
extravagant, extraordinary dexterity.

Inquisitive eyes.
What did she see?
What could she imagine?

One hundred thousand years ago,
she trailed the storm.
the sky clearing behind her.

Humanity before her,
traversing time,
she stood at the shore of her descendants.

Emerging intelligence which would, in time,
yield wit and wisdom, and power enough,
to lift sons and daughters to flight.

All the signs were there
of star-flung choreography,
dancing down the ancient dune.

As - mother of humanity -
uplifted by her journey,
she curled her toes into the sand.

               - M. L. Dittmar

Tags: Beyond Earth, Human Space Flight, Space Exploration, The Future by coolslap
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I spent the week in Washington, D.C., getting out 4 hours before the snow started falling on Friday.  Long week with NASA/Big Aerospace/”New Space”/AAS/AIAA colleagues, talking about NASA’s “new direction”.  Except that the new direction isn’t a direction at all, it is simply a policy change.  “Direction” implies a plan - and there is no plan.   Together with the complete miscalculation as to how the workforce and Congress would react - something I had been warning about since last summer, trying again as recently as last week - and I wasn’t the only one - the entire roll out of the the “redirection” has been an exercise in how NOT to provide guidance.  It has also been unnecessarily traumatic, particularly to the several thousand of the nation’s best and brightest who fear for their jobs.

One almost wonders if the last minute decision not to prepare the way was calculated to create a backlash. 

I’m on record in more than one place with my belief that NASA would not leave Low Earth Orbit until forced out  Well, here we are, and I have mixed emotions.  All-in-all, I’m an optimist and look forward to charting a new course.  But I certainly could not have imagined that the “transition” to commercial space providers would be done without a net.  Even from Washington, I expected better.  I was wrong. 

There is no transition plan.

Not yet. 

But I’ve never been one to tolerate a vacuum for long. 

—————————-

Meanwhile, I don’t seem to be able to do big policy shifts and exercise at the same time.  (That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.)  Of course, buying several “medicinal” martinis for peers over the week - and having a few myself - didn’t help.   So, yesterday I picked up the rubber bands and did the upper body workout.  This morning I was up at 3:15 CT for the Space Shuttle launch scheduled for 3:49 and am already sore.  The launch was scrubbed due to heavy cloud cover, but I can’t get back to sleep.  I twittered with a few colleagues down at the Cape and then headed to the kitchen for to make a chocolate soy latte.  Generally speaking, if I’m hitting chocolate first thing in the day, rather than last, I’m serious about getting some things done.

So here I am, sitting up with Tigger, my companion of 15 years.  I have a longer relationship with Tigger than I have with any other male in my life, save my father - and he passed almost 30 years ago.  Not sure what that says about me, other than the obvious fact that I’m hard to live with.  But I am sure what it says about Tigger.   He represents his species extraordinarily well.

I wonder if he’s got any ideas about space exploration?

Tags: Cats, Human Space Flight, NASA, Space Exploration, Tigger by coolslap
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