News of the launch of Endeavor on the 32nd shuttle mission to the International Space Station probably did not land above the fold on many of the nation’s newspapers on February 8. Our thanks to James Vernacotola for this spectacular pre-dawn shot of the launch to orbit from about 115 miles away.

Thanks to NASA, here is the official portrait of Endeavor’s crew: Nicholas Patrick, Pilot Terry Virts, Robert Behnken, Kathryn Hire, Commander George Zamka, and Stephen Robinson. I feel pretty proud of those guys and gal. What do you think about when you view such a photo? I have to remind myself that there are six human beings perched at the tip top of that beautiful arc into orbit. I bet there were six hearts beating double-time when the photo was snapped. (Actually it was not “snapped.” It took a two minute time exposure.)

NASA says that Endeavor will deliver a third connecting module – the Tranquility node – to the station and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

The launch event marks two eras rapidly drawing to a close. The first is the era of newsprint. Very few of us still depend on our daily print newspaper to find out what is going on around us in this exciting world. The second closing down is the era of manned space exploration. The space shuttle Endeavor is nearing the end of its useful life, and it appears that it won’t be replaced with a new model. And why should it? Many of the planets in our solar system are now crawling with robots busy gathering data for the world’s scientists, a much, much more efficient way to learn about space, to say nothing of human safety. I suspect that space data is piling up faster than scientists can digest it.

About the demise of printed news I have little to say except that it is obvious that most readers of the daily news left are in my generation. Most of the younger folk I know read the tabloids for reasons other than to keep broadly informed. Print media was passed by in favor of electronic multi-media many years ago.

Since the era of manned space exploration has occurred within my lifetime, and since part of my career was conducted in the penumbra of the space race, space interests me much more. In terms of mankind’s knowledge of space, the pace picked up shortly before I was born, accelerated greatly around the time of World War II, and the afterburner kicked in during the time I was busy gathering a degree in electrical engineering, a wife, and a 2nd Lieutenant’s gold bar. Shortly after I gained my sheepskin, in the fall of 1957, the Soviet Union (remember them?) launched Sputnik I. It was an artificial satellite about the size of a beach ball, and it ushered in many new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. A year later, I went to work for Collins Radio Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I rubbed shoulders, slightly, with engineers and scientists busily figuring out how to communicate by radio through space. My own radio engineering efforts were much more earth-bound, helping design automated transmitters using huge terrestrial antennae to shoot radio waves through the atmosphere to landlocked sites half a world away.

The US-Soviet tide changed dramatically in October 1958 when the US launched Explorer I to carry a small scientific payload that eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the earth, named after scientist James Van Allen, who spent his career at the University of Iowa, not far from his hometown of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Not all the exciting stuff happened at Berkeley.

NASA was also created in the fall of 1958, and the race to place men and women in space began in earnest, fueled by billions of taxpayer money. Today, a little over a half-century later, NASA is fighting for its political life, partly because investigating space from a desktop computer talking to a distant robot on Mars just cannot compete with six attractive young persons riding a rocket to space. I guess all good things must eventually come to an end.

Dave, waxing reminiscent these days.