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For centuries people dreamed, for decades people hoped, for what now seems like the briefest of times people rejoiced and marvelled, now an end is in sight an end which appears to be slipping by un-noticed.
On Friday (14th May) the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off for probably the final time and over the coming months the space shuttles Discovery and Endeavor will also make their final launches and come to the end of their explorations. All three trips are to the International Space Station (Atlantis will be kept fully operational until the Endeavor touches down again just in case she is needed for a rescue mission). However when Endeavor returns safely to the tarmac a line will be drawn under the chapter of space exploration called the Space Shuttle.
Reaching out beyond the gravitational pull of this spinning orb is something that long forgotten generations couldn’t even perceive of in their wildest dreams, the heavens were limited in space, the homes of the gods and somewhere were no mortal could go. Great chariots pulled the sun and the moon and the stars across the sky, gods controlled the things that issued forth from the sky. Within Greek mythology there is the story of Icarus giving warning to the heady feelings flight gives and that mere mortals can not deal with such bliss and will crash back to their mortal coil and death. Ask just about any child where heaven is and they will point up into the sky, and of course on Thursday the church celebrated Jesus ascending back into the sky and heaven in the clouds. For millenium the vastness above us was the preserve of the myth, of dreamers and a heavenly home.
Living in the time in which we live we know that there is more up there than our far-flung ancestors could ever have conceived or imagined, and that which they did imagine was but fantasy. This blue planet rather than being the center of the universe, is just one of many billion upon billions of objects in the skies above, most probably near the edge of something beyond our wildest comprehension and among all those billions of objects the place we call home is pretty insignificant in the great cosmos, apart from one fact, it harbours life.
We are a species of never-ending questions, there are countless un-answered questions about the planet we inhabit before we even address the questions that have arisen from space exploration. Every time a scientist discovers something new, they also discover another array of questions unseen before the screen of the latest discovery was lowered. The Space Shuttles journeys have opened doors, given great drama and sorrow, fulfilled young children’s dreams as they became the men and women who flew in them, answered some questions, but discovered other questions that we didn’t even know were out there hanging in suspended anticipation on their discovery. Questions that will not cease to be asked by the ending of the space shuttle programme, but which the ended of raises in itself a question.
Does the end of this era mean the end of space exploration? Well no, of course not, there has been talk about what might replace the space shuttle, but any such dreams and aspirations are curtailed by costs even without the current economic climate. One day our travelling will resume and our explorations continue, although I suspect it might be something I wont be around to see, one day the stuff of Star Trek might be a reality as the boundaries of where we can live and work are stretched into and beyond the stars that we can see twinkling in the night sky, when and if that day comes, I suspect there will still be plenty of questions awaiting answers, but one answer will remain true.
As Jesus ascended into heaven he said to his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit that was going to be sent to dwell within them, that promise remains true for eternity, so regardless of how far future generations travel God will always be their constant guide, be it to the ends of the earth or even beyond them.
