“Soon there will be no one who remembers when spaceflight was still a dream, the reverie of reclusive boys and the vision of a handful of men. Most of those who met in ardent little groups in small cafe between the world wars, planning voyages to the moon and planets that they never hoped to witness, are no longer living. And the last lonely boy to lie in a cricket-pulsing, honeysuckle night and gaze at a virgin moon is now in the latter years of his life. On the yellowed pages of boyhood books, the silver ships still poise sleek and needle-nosed on the craggy wastes of other worlds — on alien moonscape, bathed in the stark and eerie light of some monster planet whose ring-shadowed hemisphere fills the whole horizon, bulging into the black sky like a great golden bubble, looming behind spacesuited specks who wander ant-like across the incandescent night…. It was a dream of visible planets impossibly distant, of fantastic alien surfaces, of a Tom Sawyer’s island or an Emerald City of Oz, awaiting for eons the beaching of man’s boats. It was a vision of steaming Venusian jungles, and fine soft days on the green hills of Mars, cooled by coastal breezes from the Great Canal, looking over a far desert where ruins stood half in sand….” – Wyn Wachhorst – The Dream of Spaceflight: Essays on the Near Edge of Infinity…
For more than eight years I have lived among the Russian people full-time and they have never had half of what the American people have had in material items. I live among Russian people who really think America is the land of rich and paved in gold. These people hold an awe about America that seems strange to me. This and other thoughts were crossing my mind this morning as thinking’s. But yet as I was thinking, I realized that the American people should be at awe with the Russian people…
This simple quote from a news article tells it all: “Russia is preparing to unveil a new generation spacecraft which can transport up to 2 tons of cargo from the ISS. Now that the US has closed its space shuttle program, Russia’s Soyuz spacecrafts can return no more than 50 kg of cargo.”
This article was several years ago and now they are testing and getting ready their new craft. They are seeing their dream come true…
You see Russia still has dreams that will and can be fulfilled. Instead of saying: “Oh well!”
They say, “Lets build a better craft to carry cargo to and from the ISS…”
Every week you see article after article on the news about the space exploration. They range from Russia putting American satellite into orbit, Russian space program is innovative and Russia is going to Mars…
Russia has and is still dreaming of space. I see a daily influx on the issue of space exploration and see no let down by the Russians. It seems that even the collapse of the Soviet Union could not deter the Russians from “Space the Final Frontier.”
I wrote several articles on our blogs about how it seems wrong that America is a country that spends trillions on death and destruction by killing and developing weapons of mass destruction but seems to have lost her ability and desire to reach for space. The space program in America is in the minor side of billions of dollars for a budget. It is stated in Wikipedia that 15 billion dollars a year average is allocated to the space program since 1958. That seems like a small price to pay for such a wonderful dream. Just quit blowing up one country and the money is there to pay for searching the stars…
Dreams are important and space is an important direction to center those dreams. Russia realizes this and has seen the light at the end of the tunnel. America has relinquished her crown when it comes to space exploration. Russia has several issues going for her and those issues will become assets as time goes on. Just like the Russian system of satellite navigation “GLONASS” is broadening its market. The UK Space Agency is now viewing the possibility of using its services. Not very long ago GLONASS seemed a farfetched dream. Not any more, now it is a contender for the world market alongside GPS…
So to cut a long thinking short. Russia still dreams of space aliens, going to mars, going to the moon and saving the world from a giant asteroid…
To dream anything that you want to dream. That’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed… Bernard Edmonds >>>
I am saddened by the demise of the space program in America. For those of us who remember the 60’s and the Apollo Moon program, should be very saddened by the loss of our dreams…
I can promise you that Russia still has those dreams and they are working to fulfill these dreams…
Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…