Collective Sigh of Relief, I'm Sure!

Say that again. Considering this thing is the Conestoga Wagon of space travel, much out of date and pushed too far on too little technolgy for too long. That is the way of the industrial, military, and space complex, allow only the members of the group to play in the game. Just look at what Burt Rutan did with almost no money and you might have some idea of where we all might get to if so permitted.

I thought the weekend human events very weird;
Life-and-death crises out in space and under the sea!

So true. And to think that an antenae and fishing lines were to be, possibly, the cause of a horrendous accident and possible deaths. Modern technology versus the mundane. Frightening sometimes.

And about an equal number of lives at stake on what are very important pioneering ventures to all!

I'm still a fan of the Shuttle program. It has kept manned space travel alive for years and has been a solid workhorse supporting the hubble, ISS, etc.

It is interesting that the mundane and seemingly insignificant can interfere with the most poetic and complicated and profound of endeavors. When I was younger, I would read the biblical verse about God knowing the falling of a sparrow and the very hairs on our head; and wondering why God would worry about these kinds of details. But life is often in the details, isn't it? Small things often have large impact. The next Mars mission flight was delayed from this morning to Friday. Why? A malfunctioning fuel gauge.

Bradbury shows us--in A Sound of Thunder--the power of the small and the impact of minutia.

And that's it, unfortunately, for the Space Shuttle for awhile. At least they got back in one piece.

Are there any science-fiction writers out there? I was going to ask this in an earlier post.

Robert, in a way I think of my projections of potential sales for the following week to be a bit of science fiction. I say this in jest, but I think that there have been a couple of erstwhile science fiction writers amongst us here at the Bradbury web site.