Cliff Notes on the News

Cliff Notes on the News

Veteran San Diego news director and reporter Cliff Albert shares his thoughts on the latest news and stories each weekday at 7:22am. Full Bio

 

How a Common American Experience Brings Us Together

If you saw it last night, you were among the many thousands who did.  

The launch of the Space X rocket way up north at Vandenburg Air Force base carrying a satellite to space could be seen far away including most of San Diego County.

A lot of people turning their cameras and phones skyward to record what they saw, as they ooh’d and ahh’d at the site.

It was one of those events that make us remember other events since the start of America’s space program several decades ago.

From the launch of the Sputnik satellite in the late 1950s to Alan Shepherd on America’s first manned flight to space to John Glenn’s first American orbit around the earth to our first landing on the moon in the 1960s, to the first flights of the Space Shuttle, we can all remember those ooh and ahh moments.

We all looked to the sky, tensely listened to radio and sat in front of our televisions as we experienced each dream become a reality and each drama unfold.

And now Space X and NASA are both working on plans for future space travel, including a permanent space station on the moon and one day, a manned trip to Mars.

For several generations now, it is the same awe inspiring experience at times.

As one parent of an 11-year old boy in Hemet told the San Diego Union Tribune, who saw the rocket streaming through the dark sky last night, “It was my kid’s first launch as well as mine.”

Let’s hope there are many more in the years ahead because our nation’s space program is one of those American accomplishments that help make us who we are as a nation and can help bring us together.

Photo credit Cindy Michaels, fan of KOGO.

Space X Rocket Launch 10-7-18  Cindy Michaels

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