We continue to mourn the death of the space shuttle, which both symbolizes and embodies America's decline. Let's start on the lighter side with David Bowie's Space Oddity set to scenes from Philip Kaufman's great 1983 movie The Right Stuff. In the next video, music from Chopin's 2nd of the Trois Nouvelles Etudes accompanies beautiful, high-resolution pictures of the Apollo 11 mission when a man first walked on the Moon. July 20th is the 42nd anniversary of this event, and it's also the day Atlantis is due back from the last space shuttle mission. The irony could not be greater.
Next we look at a documentary about the Hubble Space Telescope and the shuttle missions which serviced it. You may recall that when they first installed the Hubble, they discovered that a measurement error had been made in making the telescope's mirrors. To get the telescope working, a shuttle crew was sent up to compensate for the misalignment. The repair was successful, and the Hubble has been sending us breathtaking images of the Universe ever since.
Last but not least, we look back fondly on those times when America had The Right Stuff.
Of course, the only way we did all of that space stuff was because of access to "the right stuff," i.e. cheap energy, German rocketry know-how, and an expanding economy.
So now "the right stuff" is gone, America's ability to show off technologically is gone.
In terms of the true right stuff, i.e. integrity, ethics, respect for all humans regardless of race, creed, gender, etc., I'm not sure if America ever did have the right stuff.
Am I missing something?
Posted by: John Andersen | 07/09/2011 at 04:00 PM