Angelenos celebrate Endeavour flight for the wrong reasons
It seemed as if the whole city was watching: The six o’clock news was flooded with interviews from people who had waited in a certain spot for hours, people updated their Facebook statuses at the speed of light and Instagram probably almost broke down due to the amount of users making their space shuttle shots look vintage in sepia.
On its way to its new home at the California Science Center Friday, the space shuttle Endeavour made its way across Los Angeles aboard a Boeing 747.
Yes, it was inspiring, but it also seemed like a copious amount of hoopla over something that actually represents a defeat for the scientific community.
Has the city of Los Angeles forgotten why the shuttle is shooting across the sky in the first place?
The Endeavour is retiring. This is the end of an era, which is the result of funding being taken away from NASA thanks to a crippling national debt.
So before people set their cover photos to that really awesome Instagram shot of the Endeavour, they should try and remember why they snapped the picture in the first place.
Were they really NASA fans: true proponents of space exploration who would have watched Endeavour launch on television if it were still in commission? Did any of them follow the progress of the Mars rover Curiosity land last month?
Chances are, the answer is no. If they were really NASA fans, they would have realized they weren’t celebrating the majestic beauty of the Endeavour, but the unjustifiable end of the era of spaceflight.
Elementary, my dear Watson. The Shuttle is going the way of government-built automobiles, to be replaced by private company-built automobiles. The Shuttle killed all of its occupants once every hundred flights or so. The next generation of spacecraft aims to give its travelers a 99.9% chance of returning safely.
And yes, I got a great shot of Endeavour flying directly overhead. I prefer to remember her in flight, not on static display in a museum.