09/13/2005 Archived Entry: "Astronauts"

Every person maintains a list of things they would like to see. The list can be full of things that have never been and will never be, or it can consist only of mundane but unappreciated aspects of daily life, but everybody has that list--that list of things where when you consider them, you think, "Damn, I'd like to see something like that."

At the top of my list is the launch of a Saturn V rocket. Though the STS stack generates more thrust at lift-off, there's something primal about the videos of the Saturn V lifting from the pad, like a gleaming spear, longer and taller than anything else we've ever lofted into space, and the five F1 engines standing atop pillars of pure combustion. The ground would shake for miles around, as if God himself were kicking the earth, and the most amazing part of it all would be knowing that sitting at the very top of the spear, balanced there as the monster flew ever higher, were three men who were going to the moon.

I might one day be lucky enough to witness the launch of a manned flight to the moon or to Mars, but it will likely be atop a shuttle-derived launch vehicle, re-using parts from the STS, both for reasons political and technical. Plus, it would be a two-launch deal; one to loft the heavy equipment, and the other to launch the crew, with a rendezvous in LEO before moving on to the mission's destination. Never again will the world shake with the power of so much thrust and purpose in a single vehicle.

It's kind of sad.

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