Thursday, July 16, 2026

Astronauts Reported, Feels Good.

Happy Apollo 11 Launch Day to all who celebrate!

A little vignette from CMP Michael Collins:

It’s a clear day, we can see that, and we are told that it’s hot already with little breeze—a scorcher in the making. Last night the Saturn V looked very graceful, suspended by a cross fire of searchlights which made it sparkle like a delicate opal and silver necklace against the black sky. 

Today it is a machine again, solid and businesslike, and big. Over three times as tall as a Gemini-Titan, taller than a football field set on end, as tall as the largest redwood, it is truly a monster. It is parked next to a huge steel scaffold known as the launch umbilical tower, which is designed to hold the rocket and nurture it until the final second. The two partners make quite a contrast, the rocket sleek and poised and full of promise, the tower old, gnarled, ungainly, and going nowhere. 

We park at the base of the tower and clamber out. The first elevator is waiting for us with its doors already open. Something seems wrong, and suddenly I realize what it is. The place is deserted! Every other time I have been to the launch pad it has been a beehive of activity, with workmen shouting at each other, equipment being hoisted by crane, and all the other vital signs common to a big construction site. Now it seems as if some dread epidemic has killed all but those protected by pressure suits, except there are no corpses and Joe Schmitt still looks healthy. Perhaps it is simply a case of the air-raid siren having sounded and left the city deserted. 

As the four of us ascend, I feel that more than the elevator door has clanged shut behind me. I recall that there are one million visitors here to watch the launch, but I feel closer to the moon than to them. This elevator ride, this first vertical nudge, has marked the beginning of Apollo 11, for we cannot touch the earth any longer. I am treated to one more view, however, one last bit of schizophrenia as I stand on a narrow walkway 320 feet up, ready to board Columbia. 

On my left is an unimpeded view of the beach below, unmarred by human totems; on my right the most colossal pile of machinery ever assembled. If I cover my right eye, I see the Florida of Ponce de Leon, and beyond it the sea which is mother to us all. I am the original man. If I cover my left eye, I see civilization and technology and the United States of America and a frightening array of wires and metal. I am but one adolescent in an army which has received its marching orders. Neil has entered the spacecraft, and I am next.

Good luck and godspeed...

#throwbackthursday

Twinsies!  (2015)

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Many fantasies were learned


I, uh...have long felt fascination with Joanne Catherall, ngl.

Dreamwork

Cloud Fishing:

To fish from a cloud in the sky
You must find a comfortable spot,
Spend a day looking down
Patiently, clear-sighted.

Peer at your ceiling:
Where a light dangles, hook & line
Could be slipping through.

Under the hull of a boat
A fish will see things this way,

Looking up while swimming by — 

A wavering pole’s refraction
Catching its eye.

What will you catch?
With what sort of bait?
Take care or you’ll catch yourself,

A fish might say,
As inescapable skeins of shadow
Scatter a net
Over the face of the deep.

Phillis Levin. 

Deke's in Spaaace!

I didn't even correct NASA about this happening 51 years ago (somebody else already had).

Anyway, here's Deke!

Because of the unique orbital dynamics, both launches were scheduled to take place in midafternoon local time on Tuesday, July 15. Midafternoon at Baikonur was the middle of the night in Florida, so we actually slept through the Soyuz 19 launch. 

Since our wake-up time was ten in the morning, I was already awake when John Young knocked on the door. It was unusual to be on the other end of that little bit of business—the first time since 1962 for me. 

Tom and Vance and I had a gentleman’s lunch of steak and eggs with John, Ron Evans, and Jack Lousma. We heard then that Soyuz 19 was safely in orbit and that everything was looking good for us. 

We got suited up, got in the truck, and drove out to the pad. I have to admit I felt pretty good walking across the swing arm to the spacecraft … what the hell, it was only thirteen years overdue. I never planned on being the world’s oldest rookie astronaut, but I wasn’t going to complain. 

We strapped in, Tom in the left couch, Vance in the middle, me on the right. The only hiccup in the countdown was an umbilical that got hung up. We didn’t want to have to stand down and recycle for a launch a couple of days later, because Soyuz 19 would have to come home. (That’s what that backup Soyuz was doing on the pad.) 

The umbilical problem cleared, and right on time we lit up and took off. 

I’d debriefed every Gemini and Apollo crew, so I wasn’t surprised by much that happened. The noise at liftoff was greater than I imagined it … we had eight engines running back there, and they got even louder as we moved through Max Q, then things began to smooth out. 

Whoppo! Shutdown was pretty abrupt. You went from being pushed back in your couch to hanging in your straps. We were in zero-G... 

The first order of business was to move the CSM away from the S-IVB stack, turn around, and come back for the docking module. Tom did the flying and did it perfectly. Then we got out of our suits and got down to work.

Glad he finally got up there.  Not bad for an old man...

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Langue des Signes Française


Everything I know about LSF I learned from New Order.

Je suis la nuit

“I am the night”:

I am the night
This night of space frozen by the cold idiocy of the moon.
I am money
Money that makes money without knowing why.
I am man
Man who pulls the trigger and shoots emotion
To live better.

Joyce Mansour.

Monday, July 13, 2026

You walk in clouds of glitter


And the sun reflects your eyes.

ホタル

I Would Like to Have Seen Montana

Damn.

Just damn.

I most often think of Sir Nigel's other roles, particularly in Red October, but I think to remember his joie de vivre, I will have to watch JP tonight.

Pax.


PS - JP has been Samuel's favorite movie since he was a wee lad (he is very upset by Neill's death), and he used to love intoning the Universal theme during the opening.

PPS - Movie still hits just like it did the first time in '93.  Rest in Peace, Dr Grant.

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Space travel's in my blood


There ain't nothin' I can do about it.

I Trip Through Your Wires

Patience of an Angel:

You can beat me, beat me! beat me, said the demon who
stood near the stoup of holy water, but you cannot destroy
me. I am the rebel angel but I am an angel and my face
that you so often mar bears at least the trace of one virtue:
patience. You can beat me! beat me! my time will come.

Max Jacob.

Saturday, July 11, 2026

Welcome Aboard, Calypso Gene


In space, no one can hear you laugh.

Poems Are Now Battlefields

There is no Frigate like a Book:

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry -
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll -
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul -

Emily Dickinson.