Thursday, July 31, 2014

Someone GETS it!!!


Writing for Gizmodo, Jesus Diaz,  marvel for a moment of the oft under appreciated on the space walk or EVA:
  • I  (Diaz) just came across this 1995 photograph of Michael Gernhardt floating 200-miles over the Earth on a six-hour spacewalk. I zoomed in and looked in awe for a couple of minutes, pondering the chain of events, the Herculean effort that put and kept this man alive in space.
It doesn't happen often, but every now and then someone marvels at the small things that came into existence to allow nay permit humans to survive on one of the harshest environment known to man.  

I am certainly do not intend to put someone down just because they don't have space flight on their mind 24/7.  To be honest also, many today didn't see the photos of Al Shepard doing the sub orbital. Or John Glenn lifting off, or Ed White  floating virtually untethered from his Gemini capsule.  I was floored when I saw the film of White knowing that less than an inch of fabric was all that was keeping him from a grizzly end.

Take a read of Diaz's  Sploid / Gizmodo article.  It is a good read.   HERE

4 comments:

btonym said...

You really have to hand it to these people who have literally gone where no one has gone before. Also to NASA, ESA, The Russians, And lately, the private companies (SpaceX, etc.) and all the people who endeavored to create the suits, spacecrafts, launch systems, etc. that have made our journeys off of this planet even remotely possible. The best is yet to come!

Beam Me Up said...

Hi btonym!
Glad to hear from people that understand the supreme effort it is just to keep someone alive in space for an extended time and then to miniaturize it to hold just a single person with the same performance specs! Quite a feat!

Anonymous said...

I recently saw a video of Yuri Gagarin's flight. I was struck by the calmness of the radio interchange and, of course, the incredible courage of Gagarin.

When I think of the amazing things already accomplished by humanity, I feel very proud to be human.

Beam Me Up said...

Anon
Yeah, I am always struck by Yuri's demeanor on that flight. I have heard that he was in a great deal of discomfort as well. It was hot and the o2 had a pronounced odor. I have heard that on later flights, many times the crew person or persons had to keep their visors closed at all times because they didn't trust the craft to maintain pressure (prophetic isn't it) and all through this was remarkable professionalism.