When I was born, it was a miracle putting Sputnik in Earth orbit. Now we can land probes on a comet, take close-up pictures all over Mars, Put a spaceship in orbit with the bands of Saturn, oh, and 45 years ago we put men on the Moon and returned them safely (several times). Every night when I walk my dog I just marvel at The Moon, Orion, The Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy (which will collide and merge with The Milky Way in several Billion years). It's no wonder that they laid out the Pyramids exactly in line with Orion. Before I die I'd like to go to Bali or somewhere in the South Pacific so that I can see stars (including The Southern Cross) that I have never seen.
In '86 I went to South Korea to visit my Brother for three months, and I couldn't help but marvel that the night sky was so similar to ours, including The Pleides. I want the moon carved on my headstone, because the night sky is such an important part of my life. These comet images just make me so glad that I lived in the Era of Space Exploration. I just hope that those who perished in the Space Shuttle explosions didn't suffer for long, but I'm afraid that they knew all too well what was going on. I remember seeing a picture of one of their helmets, still intact after touching down, although the face shield was gone. They were protected much too well to avoid suffering as their ships were torn apart. Plus, I remember hearing rumors of body parts still very much intact, but NASA wouldn't verify that they spent quite a bit of time alive, and especially in Challenger because inside the Space Shuttle the passenger compartment was fortified to protect them (somewhat) from catastrophic failure. Unfortunately a few anyway were probably still alive when they hit the water.
