1 post tagged “sts-116”
At ~2:45 am (GMT+1) this morning, Christer Fuglesang became the first Swede to leave Earth's atmosphere. I watched the live broadcast from Kennedy Space Center, and I must say that it was pretty cool. Being a non-nationalist individualist, my main feeling was that of happiness for Mr. Fuglesang. He has struggled to reach space for many years, and his name has been used by sports commentators as an expression for people who spend all their time on the bench. Being a science fiction geek, my secondary feeling was simple astonishment over the reality of space travel. For 50 years, we've been doing something that was unthinkable (except for science fiction authors) only 100 years ago. Pretty cool.
One thing that bugs me, though, is all the people who feel that they had to comment everything that happened during the launch. On Swedish television, the programs they had put together to cover the event consisted of a bunch of amateur reporters saying pointless things and asking stupid question to invited experts. Being Swedish experts, these people didn't impress either. They might be good at what they do, but they sure don't sound like it. TV4 did better than SVT2, by simply broadcasting the official NASA coverage (I think). There, a calm American focused on what was happening and threw in some interesting facts along the way ("the shuttle has now used over 100 billion gallons of liquid concrete and is travelling at a speed of over 50 miles per hour", stuff like that).
Another thing that bugged be was a short discussion about life in outer space on the first channel. An expert, who was pretty sure that there is life elsewhere in the universe (which is nothing new – the alternative, that life exists only on Earth, is a far more bizarre idea), seemed to consider only carbon-based life. Life "as we know it" – I hope she's aware that we don't know much, and that it is narrow-minded to assume that the only kind of life possible is that which has evolved on Earth (resulting in the deadly virus Homo sapien). But that's a topic that could (and does) fill volumes, so I'll shut up now.
