Whenever I look up, I can’t help to wonder what is up there. Out there, more to the point. I’m not the only one who wonders.
I just learned that on September 18, 1973, future President Jimmy Carter filed a report with the International UFO Bureau. In his report, he claimed he’d seen an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) in October 1969.
During his presidential campaign in 1976, Carter told it straight. He believed that he had seen a UFO. It went like this. He was waiting outside for a Lion’s Club Meeting in Leary, Georgia, at about 7:30 p.m. That is when he spotted what he called “the darndest thing I’ve ever seen” in the sky.
He wasn’t alone, as 10 to 12 others witnessed the same thing. They all described the object as “very bright [with] changing colors and about the size of the moon.” They reported that “the object hovered about 30 degrees above the horizon and moved in toward the earth and away before disappearing into the distance.”
So here’s another thing. Good Jimmy Carter told a reporter he would never again ridicule anyone who claimed to have seen a UFO after having experienced what he did.
I think a lot of us speculate about what might be out there. We are just a pinprick in this Universe, after all. Not really even a pinprick. So there is a lot “out there” to consider.
Perhaps that is why many people are also fascinated with space travel. The U.S., Russia, China, and many other countries have space programs.
It was on this date, October 11, 1968, when our Apollo 7 was launched. It was the first manned Apollo mission. Astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham were riding aboard. They orbited around Earth for eleven days. And while they were up there, they transmitted the first live television broadcasts from orbit.
NASA’s latest project is called Artemis. The first mission was scratched on September 3, 2022. The rocket was leaking and sputtering, and the weather was bad.
If it does ever launch, no astronauts will be on board. It is supposed to be up there for a long time, about five weeks, doing laps.
So. Here’s something to consider. NASA’s inspector general has said that each of the first few flights will cost more than $4 billion, which doesn’t include billions of dollars in development costs.
I am intrigued by space exploration, but four billion dollars seems like an awful lot of money to me. Money we could be using to work on water solutions, food solutions, infrastructure solutions.
I guess I wonder if it is worth it. I wonder what those higher intelligence beings, deep in space, are wondering about our choices too. I think they drop by the Earth from time to time, just to see if we are wising up. It’s why their visits have been fewer and fewer. I think they’re giving up.
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“Two things are infinite. The universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.”
— Albert Einstein
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“The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.”
— Neil deGrasse Tyson
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“I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.”
— Elon Musk
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Out there with Apollo and Jimmy and more.
