Friday, July 22, 2011

After Half A Century, Obama Ends America’s Leadership In Space Exploration

The last flight of the Space Shuttle - Strata-Sphere

My father worked on the first of these wondrous missions and with their amazing machines – Gemini & Mercury.

The Mercury Missions were America’s answer to the Russians reaching orbit ahead of us. Gemini paved the way for the Apollo Missions and our exploration of another celestial body. We had embarked on the greatest exploration ever proposed.

My father worked on the communications systems, and worked to integrate the first two IBM computers into a single system. His efforts exemplify how the act of exploration pushed technology in all directions and dimensions – providing a direct benefit to the American economy and humanity itself. Computer technology leaped forward in the wake of this nation’s drive to have humans explore off-world. And from that enhanced computational capability uncountable progress was achieved in areas as diverse as medicine, food preservation, communications, etc....
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