{"id":222528,"date":"2014-03-12T21:52:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T21:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/03\/12\/theletteraesc-madlori-earlier-i-was-watching\/"},"modified":"2018-09-23T19:32:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-23T19:32:51","slug":"theletteraesc-madlori-earlier-i-was-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/03\/12\/theletteraesc-madlori-earlier-i-was-watching\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-222528 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/03\/12\/theletteraesc-madlori-earlier-i-was-watching\/attachment\/222529\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n1y5paMFhG1qjkimlo1_640-150x150.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n1y5paMFhG1qjkimlo1_640-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n1y5paMFhG1qjkimlo1_640-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/theletteraesc.tumblr.com\/post\/78623597680\/madlori-earlier-i-was-watching-a-smithsonian\" target=\"_blank\">theletteraesc<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/madlori.tumblr.com\/post\/78621069756\/earlier-i-was-watching-a-smithsonian-documentary\" target=\"_blank\">madlori<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Earlier I was watching a Smithsonian documentary about the transporting of the space shuttle Discovery to its final resting place at the Smithsonian Institute.<\/p>\n<p>You know, just casually watching it being flown on the back of this 747. \u00a0And then\u2026TEARS. \u00a0BIG TEARS. \u00a0Like ugly crying.<\/p>\n<p>The space shuttle Discovery was in service for 27 years, from 1984 to 2011. \u00a0It flew 39 missions, covering 149\u00a0<em>million<\/em> miles. \u00a0Cumulatively, it spent over a year in space. \u00a0It was the oldest shuttle still existing &#8211; the two that preceded it, Columbia and Challenger, were both lost in in-flight disasters. \u00a0Discovery flew all the \u201creturn to flight\u201d missions following downtime after each of those disasters.<\/p>\n<p>Discovery bore the Hubble into the heavens. \u00a0It helped construct the International Space Station. \u00a0It carried John Glenn back into space. \u00a0And through all that time, it brought all its crews home safely. \u00a0When the Smithsonian decided to add a shuttle to their collection, they knew they wanted Discovery.<\/p>\n<p>Space shuttles can\u2019t actually fly. \u00a0They aren\u2019t aircraft, they\u2019re spacecraft. They don\u2019t have any functional sub-orbital propulsion systems. \u00a0They are launched into orbit via rocket, and return to Earth as a glider. \u00a0So to get it to its final home, this 747 was custom-made to carry it to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>I saw it being carried through the sky, and all I could think was\u00a0<em>it\u2019s okay, Discovery. \u00a0You did so well. \u00a0And you\u2019re going to keep doing well. \u00a0You\u2019ll be somewhere special where you\u2019ll be taken good care of. \u00a0Kids will come visit you and stare in amazement at you\u2026and maybe one of them will design or fly our next venture into space. \u00a0You did so much. \u00a0You flew so far and so long. \u00a0So just relax for this last trip and let us do the work for once. \u00a0We got you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And now I\u2019m weepy again. \u00a0I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THE SPACE PROGRAM OKAY.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The space program was a big part of my growing up. The Challenger disaster is one of my first \u201cbig world\u201d memories; the Discovery return to flight launch is another. We went to the Kennedy Space Center so many times when I was a kid, and I loved every trip we made. I had to be dragged out of the Air &amp; Space Museum when my family visited DC. Last year I went to the Adler Planetarium and spent hours in the space flight and exploration section, having goosebumps. It kills me that we don\u2019t have an orbiter program anymore.<\/p>\n<p>When they took Endeavour to Los Angeles, I cried as I watched it going down the streets from LAX to its new home. I don\u2019t know how to put it into words, except to say that when I was a kid, the orbiters symbolized everything that could be, that could happen, bridging now and the future.<\/p>\n<p>So yeah I have powerful emotions about this too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>theletteraesc: madlori: Earlier I was watching a Smithsonian documentary about the transporting of the space shuttle Discovery to its final resting place at the Smithsonian Institute. You know, just casually watching it being flown on the back of this 747. \u00a0And then\u2026TEARS. \u00a0BIG TEARS. \u00a0Like ugly crying. The space shuttle Discovery was in service for &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/03\/12\/theletteraesc-madlori-earlier-i-was-watching\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[2550,1344,22901,22902,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222530,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222528\/revisions\/222530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}