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As a child, I was obsessed with space travel. One of my earliest memories of school is my Kindergarten teacher sharing the news of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz joint mission. I remember my fascination and excitement a year later when the Viking landers sent back the first ever colour photographs from the surface of Mars.
I have two enduring memories of the 1980s: first, poring over the photos of distant planets and moons from the Voyager space probes, while impatiently waiting for the next planetfall (Jupiter 1979, Saturn 1981, Uranus 1986, Neptune 1989 … sadly and frustratingly, no Pluto). Second, watching episodes of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos over, and over, and over again (and wishing I knew where its soundtrack came from – it was many years later that I discovered it was Vangelis).
Of course, I also studiously sponged up everything I could about crewed space flight (back then it was called “manned space flight”) including the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes and, of course, the Moon landings.
Many years later, in 2015, my then-teenage children watched in bemusement as exactly the same childhood excitement and wonder came flooding back as New Horizons finally made it to Pluto.
Over the years, I’ve often wished that I could visit some of the iconic space-related sites in America. I’ve longed to visit Mission Control in Houston, and Cape Canaveral, and to visit the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. However, there’s been a hitherto insurmountable problem: my wife, while sympathetic, has been totally uninterested.
But about a year ago, totally unexpectedly, she said: “I think you should do it without me.”.
Naturally, I pretended to be reluctant.
But she insisted. “I think you should go”.
This trip report (my first on AFF) is the result. I’m due to leave in a few days.
I have two enduring memories of the 1980s: first, poring over the photos of distant planets and moons from the Voyager space probes, while impatiently waiting for the next planetfall (Jupiter 1979, Saturn 1981, Uranus 1986, Neptune 1989 … sadly and frustratingly, no Pluto). Second, watching episodes of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos over, and over, and over again (and wishing I knew where its soundtrack came from – it was many years later that I discovered it was Vangelis).
Of course, I also studiously sponged up everything I could about crewed space flight (back then it was called “manned space flight”) including the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes and, of course, the Moon landings.
Many years later, in 2015, my then-teenage children watched in bemusement as exactly the same childhood excitement and wonder came flooding back as New Horizons finally made it to Pluto.
Over the years, I’ve often wished that I could visit some of the iconic space-related sites in America. I’ve longed to visit Mission Control in Houston, and Cape Canaveral, and to visit the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. However, there’s been a hitherto insurmountable problem: my wife, while sympathetic, has been totally uninterested.
But about a year ago, totally unexpectedly, she said: “I think you should do it without me.”.
Naturally, I pretended to be reluctant.
But she insisted. “I think you should go”.
This trip report (my first on AFF) is the result. I’m due to leave in a few days.
