There's no substitute for cheap air and hotel to Orlando, where a quick ride east past the cooling towers and hummock-stranded cattle drops you at the Kennedy Space Center. We went there this winter. The whole trip was a big success - Sea World, beach trip, the flights were on time - but I really got off on the rockets. You're standing there on the fourth floor of a steel observation tower, the wind is whistling through the grates. In the distance, just out of range for a shoulder-fired weapon, various structures stand on the shore, spaced miles apart. The architecture is dense and one-sided, like the other side suddenly took off.
When you watch the shuttle launch on television, you can see the engines tighten just before lift-off, like ground control punched up the "go for hernia check" command. It's then, when the plume of smoke shoots out like a movie special effect, that you understand why they keep the dignitaries three and a half miles away. It's the same sky there shooting these talented people into. I checked, both times, at home and in Florida. It's just an empty sky with no apparent destination. It's all time and trajectory, which really takes away from the whole point - the faith and stones it takes to climb aboard the monstrous rocket!
addendum: I've been continuing my reading of the Bible and it is thus far mute on the subject of space travel. I'm currently reading Acts, which is telling me about what the Apostles did after Jesus' ascension to Heaven. I'm not 100% with the book yet, but I have a little theory working about why so many disagreements have arisen about it. More on that later...
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