There is other stuff we could talk about this morning, but it can wait. We prefer the best ten minutes we have ever seen. The Richest individual on Earth launched himself sixty miles up, above the atmosphere we normally share, successfully separated himself from the booster, spent a couple minutes in the zero-gravity environment and returned. The booster that lifted him skyward descended gracefully under parachutes and landed virtually dead center on the intended landing hard point with a brief declaration of rocket power to kill momentum and shut itself down, it’s mission accomplished.
Jeff brought along family, both blood and philosophical. There was his brother, and the oldest astronaut so far, an indomitable 81-year old lady, and the youngest, a 21-year-old lottery winner. It was one of the most predictable triumphs in the history of people and space. We have watched some of these events before, the most memorable being the destruction of Space Shuttle Challenger. Thoughts of the amount of junk we have used to hurl objects upward over the years occurred in the evolution, the swarm of broken aerodynamic systems hurtling mindless through space.
With the booster recovered successfully, the capsule chutes deployed properly aligning the Blue Origin for recovery in the desert. A few minutes later, speed was abruptly slowed with the large final chutes. The capsule landed with only a modest thump and small cloud of earthly dust. And when the deed was done with graceful precision, the tear came, rolling unbidden down my cheek.
We are close to starting the freedom to roam our solar system. Mr. Bezos found his cowboy hat before the capsule opened, since the desert sun could be hostile to his shiny pate. But in ten minutes, the question was posed and answered. And the future arrived.
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Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com