Everyday Canvas

Space Exploration

On this day in 1969, The Apollo 12 spacecraft returns to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. Do you remember seeing the Apollo 12 launch and when it returned? Discuss how you feel about the space launches. Have you seen any launches?

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How could I miss those earliest launches? We were all glued to the TV set. Later on, when one of my sons during his teens got interested "greatly" in space exploration, I heard a lot more about such stuff because of him. Later on, however, the excitement fizzled out of everyone, including my family.

Nowadays, the idea is going through a revival due to Space X and Elon Musk, but now my family and I couldn't care less as we are all into earthling-things.

The first time was the Apollo 11 mission, when the first man walked on the moon. The other missions came later to our attention.

As to Apollo 12, it had three people as its crew. During its launch, however, lightning struck something on the rocket but the flight crew took care of it enough to continue the mission. I believe the crew, then, retrieved something from an earlier spacecraft that had landed on the moon, some time ago. Then, some weird thing happened and the cameras were cut off. I knew what it was, but I can't recall it now. I can dig up this much because my late husband had kept talking about it after the lightning hit as he was always much against endangering human lives, no matter what the exploration.

After Nasa gave up on the moon, sort of, Skylab was built where scientist-astronauts conduct experiments. If I'm not mistaken it's still in place. Then, what I consider the best project ever was the Apollo-Soyuz thing in collaboration with the USSR. I don't know what it was exactly about but the idea of collaboration between nations always appeal to me.

Then, Nasa's Space-Shuttle program with some sad failures and also several achievements happened. By this time, especially after a shuttle exploded right after take-off, killing everyone on board, while we all watched and ended up with some kind of a PTSD as a nation, I lost all interest in this, as did my family.

I like, however, seeing the photos Hubble Space Telescope sends. I can't predict where this space exploration thing will take us earthlings, but technology is advancing and new missions and discoveries may shape our future.

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Note: I called my son for what he remembered on the subject and he told me a few names and titles. If it weren't for him, I couldn't have come up with the name Apollo-Soyuz that I mentioned, even though I knew all those and a bit more while they were in progress.