This past month, four astronauts rocketed towards the moon, circled it, and returned safely to earth. The United States has not attempted that trip since the 1970’s. It is a fantastic feat that, for many years, was touted as unbelievable. The science and technology that must go into even planning such an event is mind-boggling. I marvel at the math required to plan such a journey. It takes a lot of faith and excellent planning to create such an accomplishment.
As a young student, I remember reading so many books about the moon and the astronauts who went there. Our Middle School even had a planetarium. The planetarium made learning about the moon so much more interesting. Sitting in the dark in a chair that reclined, looking up as small lights emulating stars shone and danced on the large, rounded ceiling.
Our teacher, Mr. Perkins, was adamant about teaching us each phase of the moon correctly. He always dressed for the occasion. A bow tie and suit coat were his standard attire in his planetarium. Although I was only a 7th-grade student, I admired the pride he took in his chosen field of education.
We repeated his mantras to the point of laughter. “No moon is new moon, and new moon is no moon.” After chanting it 30 times, it became funny. We all laughed- but still remember it to this day. That and “The only half-moon is Henry Hudson’s ship!” My sympathies to Mr. Hudson, who named his exploratory vessel incorrectly. Unbeknownst to us, Mr. Perkins was also secretly teaching us history.
And speaking of unbelievable things – What about Supersonic air travel and massive shipbuilding?
The Concorde -a supersonic jet that flew at twice the speed of sound made trips across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to France in record time. Hundreds of flights were made from 1975 to 2000. One accident caused the entire fleet of aircraft to be retired. Why did we not improve upon this? Why could we not learn from the accident and make the plane better? Why did we just quit? Why did we stop having faith?
We used to build huge ships, and now those are contracted out to other countries. There was a time in our history when we built marvelous ships, aircraft carriers, destroyers, and vessels of trade and cargo. Now we build less than 1% of the world’s ships and at twice the cost. Somehow, this seems unbelievable too. We have not had an edge in shipbuilding since before the Civil War, and very few people in this country have ever seen a ship being built.
Even though we don’t see them being built, we know that ships, planes, and rockets exist because we see them. We see planes in the air and ships on the seas. We can touch them or ride on them. 4 astronauts got to go on this month’s moon trip, and even though we saw the rocket launch, there are actually some doubters who think that it really didn’t happen, that it was all fake or staged.
Also, this past month —about 2000 years ago —the most important event on earth happened, and to many people, that was unbelievable at the time. In fact, one of them wouldn’t believe it unless he could touch the scars himself. None of us was there, yet most of us truly believe it happened. I am absolutely certain that it happened because of the faith I have that it did.
And I have faith that we can build wonderful planes and ships again. And I believe that a few weeks ago, four brave souls— with an amazing amount of faith — took a trip around the moon and returned to Earth safely.
I would even bet those astronauts all know who Henry Hudson is and the name of his ship.
