{"id":13955,"date":"2026-04-01T19:03:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=13955"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:03:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:03:34","slug":"i-never-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=13955","title":{"rendered":"I never thought…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I never thought (at least not in the past 25 years, give or take) that I’ll live long enough to see this.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Note the indicator I highlighted in the lower right.<\/p>\n

Distance to the Moon.<\/p>\n

For the first time since December, 1972.<\/p>\n

I was not yet 10 in December, 1972. The world was troubled back then, just as it is troubled right now.<\/p>\n

This launch? I was worried sick. A space launch system the design of which was very heavily influenced by politics. Political pressure to ensure launch. Frustrating issues with the rocket in the preceding months, with multiple delays.<\/p>\n

And yet… so far so good. The launch proceeded without a glitch. The spacecraft is orbiting the Earth, soon to continue its journey to the Moon.<\/p>\n

To the Moon.<\/p>\n

I am astonished by my own reaction to these words. Thinking of Jules Verne, thinking of Apollo 8, of Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Apollo 17… and then 53 years — more than half a century! — with no human traveling beyond Low Earth Orbit.<\/p>\n

You know what. Let me insert something here that these days isn’t very popular, for a whole host of (valid) reasons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yes. An American flag. On the Moon. Because…<\/p>\n

Because they are on their way to the Moon again.<\/p>\n<\/fb:like>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never thought (at least not in the past 25 years, give or take) that I’ll live long enough to see this. Note the indicator I highlighted in the lower right. Distance to the Moon. For the first time since December, 1972. I was not yet 10 in December, 1972. The world was troubled back […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-space","category-25-id","category-26-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13958,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955\/revisions\/13958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}