Gravity, t3h movie! Imax 3d.

[Hammerskjold]

I plan to see the movie eventually--I'm looking forward to it.
This thread reminded me of when I lived and worked near the Cape where they launched the shuttles. One of my patients, who was a NASA employee, claimed that NASA always took the lowest bidder on computer systems (this was 1985-1989), and as a result they had compatibility issues with software, etc.

Reminds me of this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/techno...2NASA.html

it was just a light ascending into the sky from our distance, but still...

There's something poetic in the above sentence, I likes it.

The first one I witnessed was the Challenger. Everyone who had previously seen launches immediately knew something was wrong from the plumes of smoke in the air.

I was just a wee lad when that happened, and I saw it on the news footage. Still one of those unforgettable moments for me though.
Without veering off into a political rantings\ravings (heavens to brown betties we absolutely have so little of that lately!) territory.

I do think space exploration will be our species next step. Provided we don't kill each other off first. There are and will be problems. EG: There are very real threats and temptations of weaponizing space.

But again, just my own soapboxing on it. There's something inherent in the human spirit I think, that calls for exploration. Whether that's a literal physical frontier, or a metaphorical one.

The dinosaurs got wiped out by a falling space rock despite being the top tier life form of their era. Humans have the capacity for learning and the frightening ability to adapt. What's our excuse?

TL;DR: I think we as a species need to explore the 2 last physical frontiers left. The oceans, and space\other planets. And because hot green alien women are not going to have hot interspecies relations by themselves. (not counting the giant amoeba 'female..?' shape shifting xenomorph from Rigellus 7.)