Discovery and Space Station

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Rague
Rague Member Posts: 3,653 Member
in Breast Cancer #1
I know this isn't directly related to BC but I feel I need to at least write about my feelings now.

I am so thankful for all that science has given to so many areas of our lifes - especially health issues.

Just a little bit ago I bundled up (it's 2F here) to go out and watch the Space Station pass overhead followed a few minutes later by the Discovery. Spectacular - to me anyway. I'm old enough to remember when Sputnik was sent up, I rmemeber when Alan Shepherd went up, when Gus Grissom died, the first moon walk, the Challenger - too many more to write all of them here, these are just the ones that have special places to me for varing reasons. The sciences that have been developed to sustain these courageous people have also given so much in scineces that are used daily to sustain us.

Susan

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  • PinkPearl
    PinkPearl Member Posts: 280
    #2
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    Me too
    I am so glad to hear from someone that feels as I do and realizes the huge advances these programs have made in many areas of our lives and especially to health issues and even things we use daily. I am a little prejudiced because I have a son who is a flight controller for the space station in the area of life support and his wife works in the heart lab for NASA --I am so proud of them so please forgive me for bragging a little on them but they are "good people" and have been so supportive of me with my BC too. These programs are in so much jeopardy now because of budget cuts and it pains me to see our nation turn its back on the sciences.
    Being from Houston...you are one brave lady to go out in 2F!! This place would freak out if we ever felt 2F!!! We bundle up at 50F; you would laugh at us. We are pitiful!
  • aysemari
    aysemari Member Posts: 1,596 Member
    #3
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    Here's to science of saving our sweet a**e* (;
    I am with you on this one 100 % Susan. So grateful for the technology that helped me
    to stay alive. I keep reminding myself of this, on days when I get frustrated with my
    medical team.

    It's bizarre if you think in certain parts of the world, an illness way less serious than
    cancer can cause a person's death.

    I love science and am totally fascinated by it.

    Hugs,
    Ayse
  • missrenee
    missrenee Member Posts: 2,136 Member
    #4
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    aysemari said:

    Here's to science of saving our sweet a**e* (;
    I am with you on this one 100 % Susan. So grateful for the technology that helped me
    to stay alive. I keep reminding myself of this, on days when I get frustrated with my
    medical team.

    It's bizarre if you think in certain parts of the world, an illness way less serious than
    cancer can cause a person's death.

    I love science and am totally fascinated by it.

    Hugs,
    Ayse

    I totally agree with Susan, Pink and Ayse
    I also have a couple of very personal reasons for being in awe of science and space technology. First, my husband is an aerospace engineer--who works on putting various satellites into space, so the industry is very important to him and me.

    Secondly, the very same guy had open heart surgery as a child and they used a material which was developed for the space program to repair a hole in his heart. It was 1969 and he had his surgery on the very day we first walked on the moon! It's amazing how the technologies can criss-cross one another and be used in totally different ways.

    Hugs, Renee
  • Gabe N Abby Mom
    Gabe N Abby Mom Member Posts: 2,413
    #5
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    Thanks for sharing this.
    Thanks for sharing this. You've reminded me of how much has changed, and how many people we should be thanking.

    Hugs,

    Linda
  • Rague
    Rague Member Posts: 3,653 Member
    #6
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    missrenee said:

    I totally agree with Susan, Pink and Ayse
    I also have a couple of very personal reasons for being in awe of science and space technology. First, my husband is an aerospace engineer--who works on putting various satellites into space, so the industry is very important to him and me.

    Secondly, the very same guy had open heart surgery as a child and they used a material which was developed for the space program to repair a hole in his heart. It was 1969 and he had his surgery on the very day we first walked on the moon! It's amazing how the technologies can criss-cross one another and be used in totally different ways.

    Hugs, Renee

    WOW
    What a way to remember the first moon walk! I remember it well but definately not in such a spectacular way. I was in the process of adding another disciple to my riding/showing and was spending a few weeks with my new trainer in Sorrento, FL. Well we had to run to Mt. Dora to pick up some 'stuff' - had been planning on watching it in her house. Well as we walked past the TV section in the Grants store (for youngers - sort of like an early WalMart) and saw that there was no way we'd make back to her house in time to watch so we sat down in the aisle (in our tanktops, boots and breeches) and watched it. Got back to her house to find her maid back in the utility room doing ironing and were so suprised - figured that she'd be glued to the TV - Nope - she hadn't watched any of it. She thought that anything about it on TV was just something that had been filmed in Hollywood as her Preacher had told them that if anyone ever made it to the Moon, the Earth would cease to exist - but we were all still alive so it was just a 'science fiction movie'.

    Isn't it so fantastic how one advance in science aids so many others?!

    Susan
  • Rague
    Rague Member Posts: 3,653 Member
    #7
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    PinkPearl said:

    Me too
    I am so glad to hear from someone that feels as I do and realizes the huge advances these programs have made in many areas of our lives and especially to health issues and even things we use daily. I am a little prejudiced because I have a son who is a flight controller for the space station in the area of life support and his wife works in the heart lab for NASA --I am so proud of them so please forgive me for bragging a little on them but they are "good people" and have been so supportive of me with my BC too. These programs are in so much jeopardy now because of budget cuts and it pains me to see our nation turn its back on the sciences.
    Being from Houston...you are one brave lady to go out in 2F!! This place would freak out if we ever felt 2F!!! We bundle up at 50F; you would laugh at us. We are pitiful!

    Daddy was an USAF
    Daddy was an USAF Meteorologist stationed at Patrick AFB '61 - '63. I was fortunate to have met all of the Mercury 7 Astronauts. Gus Grissom was by far my favorite - unfortunately his life was cut too short (along with Roger Chaffee and Edward White - I had never met them) that fateful day in '67.

    I'm a Native Floridian (SW FL) - so I get cold easy and bundle up at 50F too - I just bundle up a LOT more here as the temps drop. I've been known to look like a big 'blob'. My normal day is thermies under jeans, 2 pair of socks on in pacs, thermie top, turtleneck and then a flannel or sweatshirt. If I have to be out for any length of time - which I do often with horses though Sandy (Hubby) is good about doing more in winter, i will have on at lest a snowsuit with hood and stocking cap under it. When really bad I'll put my bibs on over the snow suit and my fleece lined jacket.

    Susan
  • CypressCynthia
    CypressCynthia Member Posts: 4,014 Member
    #8
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    So very true. And I will
    So very true. And I will pass this on to Danny, a mechanical engineer, who worked on the space shuttle fuel tank for 30 years. :-) He'll be all puffed up!
  • Rague
    Rague Member Posts: 3,653 Member
    #9
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    Forgot to add some stats I
    Forgot to add some stats I saw on TV about the Discovery. It did more flights than any other shuttle, it spent 365 days in orbit - yeah it actually spent an entire year in orbit, it was the one that was called up to do the next missions after both Challenger and Columbia. There were some other things but I forgot them. The runway will have marks put in it at the points that the wheels came to her final stop.

    Susan
  • crselby
    crselby Member Posts: 441 Member
    #10
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    Hope
    I am surprised that so many of you are fans of the space program as I am! I SO wanted to be an astronaut but couldn't handle the math it required. I would have applied for the "Teacher-Astronaut" postition that Christa McAuliffe ended up with but I'd just had a baby and my mind was elsewhere.

    My blood gets hot when people think the space program is a waste of money. So many medical advances are directly tied to developments done as part of the space program. Other things in daily life have come from it too, like Teflon (I'm not a fan, but my mother was)and Velcro. I wouldn't deny a hungry person food to put those dollars into the space program, but what has come out of it directly and indirectly is INVALUABLE. It is short sighted to cut its funding, but ... when times are tough.... it has been an easy target.

    With each successful launch, mission, and landing, manned or unmanned, I give kudos to the thousands of dedicated people whose joined efforts make it possible and the brave souls who risk their lives to stretch our knowledge and understanding of what an awesome universe we are part of. For me, therein lies HOPE.
    ~~Connie~~

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