Reach

My earliest recollection of the U.S. space program was in 1965 when Ed White became the first man to walk in space. I was 6 years old at the time. From that time forward I was a space fan, reading everything I could about the nation's push to land a man on the moon. I remember sitting in my living room on July 20, 1968 watching fuzzy pictures broadcast from the moon's surface on the family TV as Neil Armstrong took the first tentative steps on our nearest space neighbor a quarter million miles away.

It's good to have a goal. It's also good to have a plan for once you reach that goal. After we landed a few people on the moon (with time out to rescue 3 astronauts on a crippled spacecraft), the space program went adrift. A large spacecraft called Skylab was launched, a few experiments were conducted on a few missions, then the whole thing came crashing to earth over the Australian outback. I'm still not convinced we have hit our stride yet with the space shuttle program. After all, the basic design of the shuttle itself has not changed in the last 20 years or so. Are they trying to tell us that 1985 technology is going to win the day in space? Okayyyyy.

Many the one-hit wonder have found themselves finally on the brink of achieving their dreams when the gut wrenching realization hit - we're expected to do this again, and quick! Some poeple have what it takes to endure, some don't.

So what got me going on this riff? On a much smaller scale, I've achieved a level of photography that I once dreamed about ten years ago. I think I'm at the point where I produce consistently good images with the occasional stunner. The question now is, what's next? Coast for a long time or push to the next thing?

I'm going for push.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.