I have a confession: I am a NASA/space geek.

I watched the night time launch of the shuttle Saturday night, and oftentimes, late at night when there is a mission going on, I tun in to my station that shows the space walks and such. I don't know why it fascinates me so much, but it does. Ever since the Gemini missions, I've loved watching this stuff.

I was particularly fascinated by tonight's (or rather, Saturday's) shot from the main rocket booster of the shuttle separating from it. I understand that the reason for that camera is so that mission control could look at the tiles underneath the shuttle to see if any of the tiles were damaged during lift off.

Is anyone else here a space geek?

I almost went to "Space Camp"

:bounce:

series. And I grew up in the Santa Clara Valley when most dads were space geeks, not internet geeks.

:)

/were -> when

I would love to go up in the space shuttle.

Courtesy of a link provided here by a fellow DUer
Yes I am a bit of a geek too. I feel that mankind's future hinges on how we treat space exploration. Each space-shot renews my optimism that mankind will make it after all.
When I still had one of those big satellite dishes and an illegal descrambler I could watch the feeds between Houston and Cape Canaveral, (JPL?? Feed I think), I miss that. As a child I got to watch those early space shots too. I am not sure if the first for me were Mercury or Gemini, as there are parts of my childhood which did not include a television. I do remember even earlier when I was in Kindergarten lookin up into the sky, (often), hoping to see that sneaky commie Sputnik satellite which was supposed to be spying on us. (Early geek in training). It seemed to have all the adults worried about it and I was NOT gonna let it get the jump on me!
c

I remember that too, as well as Sputnik.

The first moon landing and Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon are seared into my brain. I was staying with my grandparents that summer, and when it was time for the landing, we turned the TV on. I was sitting close to the set, because I wanted to make sure that I saw everything possible. I'm still in awe of that.

...I watched that one on a small BW tv because that was how the American channel was over in Berlin Germany back then. How could we have known, (then), that a few more missions to the moon and then nada! Yeah I know, we have done a lot since then but I expected so much more out of NASA. If you would have asked me while I was watching those moonshots, I would have told you that there will be colonies on Mars before the year 2000. I also believed that we would be riding around in "air" cars by now too. Never in my wildest imagination could I have seen me sitting behind a keyboard chattin it up with folks from all over the world! That part turned out pretty cool. Cell phones and Video Games... never could have predicted any of that. I often say, "Living in the future ain't so bad.", and except for bushcon stuff it really "ain't". (We should have had at least 1 human on Mars by now though...let me be the first to volunteer a president...he can even claim the place for his own...first Texan to own a planet and if he promises to stay he can keep it!)
:patriot:

Long as he doesn't try to do things "his way".

Right now, I'm watching a story on things that went wrong during the first mission to the moon. I think I've seen this before, but I'm not sure.

You know, once in awhile, when I'm talking on my cell phone, I can't help but think of Maxwell Smart and his "shoe phone." I always thought that was an "out there" idea, but here we are, small phones not plugged into an outlet talking to people all over the place.

And the laptop style computers on Star Trek: The Next Generation! I'm typing this on a laptop computer right now. The very first computer I worked on, in the early 70's, took up an entire room, and used the punch cards. Now, I can share my lap with the computer AND my cat, and do so much more than that room-sized computer back in the day.

Ain't technology amazin'????

Like I said: "Livin' in the future ain't so bad."

:toast:

Melrose Space... (Starship Troopers), a book I read back in the early '60s is on. :bounce:
Sure I seen it lotsa times and sure it ain't exactly high-brow viewing but I like it anyways... night SeattleGirl :toast:
c

:toast:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

Needless to say, my desktop background changes constantly. This is the most recent

to remember Apollo 11's first landing - I was 5. I do remember sneaking out of my room to see the launch of 17, it was a night launch, and past my bedtime. My parents were watching in the living room, I crawled down the hallway far enough to see the set. I suspect my folks knew I was there and tolerated it.

The space program was probably what made me decide to get into engineering.

Imagine the US government spending money on something we could take pride in. I'm so tired of the shame of the last 6 years of Pissypant's rule.

I must have been about 5 years old. My mother was reading a National Geographic and she looked up and said, "Isn't that interesting; the Andromeda galaxy is two million light years away." I ask the big question, "What's a light year?" The answer blew my tiny mind ("what's a galaxy" was just as heavy)and I've been hooked ever since.

I went through all the fiction and non-fiction space and science fiction books at the local library. Right after the Sputnik launch, I got into an argument with another kid about space travel. I said we might see men in space in our life time; he said I was crazy. I wonder, if 4 years later, he remembered the conversation.

I followed it all: The early disasters and flame outs, the monkeys and dogs, Gagarin's ballsy ride, Sheppard's up and down, Grissom's close call (should have quit while you were ahead, Gus), Glenn's chariot of fire, Kennedy's "cap over the wall" speech, the first space walk, the Apollo One horror, those dazzling pictures from Apollo 8 of the Blue Planet rising over the bleak moonscape, praying for the Apollo 13 crew, the Voyager fly bys and so much more.

I was in Trafalgar Square, London, the night of the moon walk. It was after midnight and there were thousands of people crammed into the place, watching on gigantic screens set up against the buildings. Absolute silence during the descent and when "Man on the moon" flashed on the screens, a roar I know they heard over in France, even the lions joined in. I just cried; I was very proud of being a human being that night.

By the way, for the youngsters in the audience, catch the film The Dish. It's about the radio telescope in Australia that transmitted the TV pictures from Apollo 11. Fascinating story in its own right, but how it portrays the emotions of people watching the moon landing is right on the money.

So yeah, I guess I'm a space geek.

Look up the Chicago DUer named XNASA some time. He's way cool.

I always have been

When I was a kid we would get refrigerator boxes and turn them into spaceships in our basement.

My friends and I would sit our chairs on their backs so we were facing up and we would blast off

I was sure we'd be landing on other planets by the time I was an adult

I remember thinking that so many things would be different.

We got sidetracked by reality somewhere along the way.

the race to the moon was a time in my life I will always remember with fondness despite all the other things going on (war, watergate, etc)