Thursday, February 19 2009
Happy Birthday SS - OV 101
The first space ship Enterprise
It's time for an embarrassing admission: I am a complete and utter nerd. Not only did I play Dungeons and Dragons when I was a kid, I also read a lot of science fiction, watched Star Trek and wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. I eventually left the twenty-sided dice and the monster manual behind, and it was gently explained to me that monocular vision wasn't good enough for astronaut duty, but I never quit with wanting to be part of the bright shiny future. I wanted to live in a world where you could go to a Spaceport, buy a ticket to the moon, and wear exciting unisex jumpsuits.
I wonder if they still have my application on file . . .
It turns out the folks at NASA and I share a common interest: most of them were Star Trek fans. In fact, a friend of mine from high school got a job at NASA, although she didn't have exactly the resumé they were looking for. When they asked why she wanted to work there, she blurted out, "I love Star Trek and want to be part of it!" They hired her on the spot.
Some of our mutual aspirations came true, 32 years ago this very week. On February 18th, 1977 SS - OV 101, designated The Enterprise took its maiden voyage for atmospheric testing, piggybacked to a Boeing 747 SCA. It was the first of what would become five unmanned and five manned free-flight trials to prove the shuttle program and develop the orbiter for final production. Although the Enterprise never flew under her own power, she is the most important shuttle ever built.
This man is freed from servile bands,
Of hope to rise or fear to fall:
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And leaving nothing, yet hath all
And so now I live on a planet that has not one, but dozens of Spaceports, with more private ones on the way, where you can buy a ticket to outer space, where our hands reach across the sky to explore Mars, where we've left our footprints on the moon, where there is the gentle glint of a permanent manned space station in the night sky.
Whenever I'm feeling down, or I'm worried about how things are going on this crazy, mixed-up world I like to take a minute to think about how incredibly wonderful things really are: in less than a century we managed a transition from horse-drawn buggies and steamships to shrugging off the surly bonds of earth and going anywhere we please in all of creation. We may not have Captain Kirk and the Federation yet, but we can accomplish anything we set our minds to.
Happy anniversary, Enterprise.
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