"Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come."
Doctrine and Covenants 68:6

Friday, July 8, 2011

Atlantis Shuttle Launch

I just watched the last planned shuttle launch of my life time. The shuttle Atlantis took off at 11:26ish today, July 8th, with four astronauts on the "Final Launch" of NASA as we know it.

It brought tears to my eyes to see such a historical event. Our space program has for so long been the symbol of our progress in knowledge and our status as world leader and now we are shutting it down.

What are we telling the world now?


It makes me sad to see our research and innovation come to a halt. What are we doing as a nation if not progressing? Are we just eating, sleeping, going to a job every day, making and spending money and starting over again the next week?

If we are not learning more and advancing, does that mean we are becoming stagnant and declining? We know from the laws of entropy that "systems tend to go from a state of order (low entropy) to a state of maximum disorder (high entropy)" (Dictionary.com). We know we have to work hard to maintain order in every aspect of life. There is no stability. There is either up or down, increase or decrease, better or worse, advance or digress.

Tragically, in the moment that we cease to learn more, aren't we really beginning to forget?


Is this really the beginning of the end?

2 comments:

Mary said...

Jason and I watched from videos from this website last night: http://www.spacex.com/

It's not the end!

Meagan said...

Wow. Heidi, I don't know what is more sad. That I didn't pay any attention to the final launch and it's impacts or that it is the end of an era. They aren't completely abandoning the space program though are they? I hope not.