While not as dramatic as Tom Wolfe’s account of the legendary Chuck Yeager’s awe inspiring trio of yearning, will and courage to fight the ultimate losing battle in attempting to pierce the nearest borders of space and the furthest reaches of the atmosphere in attaining orbit with a modified Air Force fighter jet, the latest crew from the International Space Station were reunited with terra firma in an understated parachute assisted descent from the heavens and without the need for a fiery and effulgent interpretation from a showgirl clad with merely a duo of strategically and majestically placed oversized feathers.
While the credibility of transports to and from the ISS continues to garner loads of criticism thanks to the wavering and lacking validity in scientific merit, the presence of a crew influenced by status and wealth and the existence of astronomical costs, the latest mini-drama in the sobering outlay of the modern space race came to a reasonable conclusion early Tuesday. While ELO stunned and entertained audiences with rampart rock ballads and highlighted by sound effects in the 1970’s, the current members of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) society are conducting their own symphony with economics and politics.
The endgame of the continued missions sets a fervid ground for a one-sided debate as the economic feasibility of current and future near earth missions and more ambitious ventures into the vacuous corners of the solar system facilitate the sale of science fiction literature benefiting publishers and writers, rather than existing as a viable business model. Thank Zeus for the bureaucracy of NASA and the black market salient inclinations of 1960’s Soviet technology.
Read the full CBS News article here.
