KSC Memorial

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sat 23 Apr 2011 22:01
Kennedy Space Centre - Memorial
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Space Mirror Memorial, designated as a national memorial by Congress and President George Bush, was dedicated in 1991. The Astronaut Memorial honours the twenty four US astronauts who gave their lives for space exploration. The names of the fallen astronauts from the Space Shuttle Columbia, the Space Shuttle Challenger and Apollo 1, as well as the astronauts from training and commercial airplane accidents are emblazoned on the monument’s forty two foot-by-fifty foot-by-six inches-wide black granite surface as if to be projected into the heavens.

 

 

 

Just a few of the memorials

It was very moving wandering from memorial to memorial, reading how such young lives, married with children were lost. Space shuttle Challenger's crew of seven astronauts died in the explosion of their spacecraft during the launch of STS-51L on the 28th of January 1986. The crew included Commander Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair and Ellison S. Onizuka, Payload Specialist Gregory B. Jarvis and Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to fly in space. The one name everyone always remembers because she was a civilian teacher.

 

 
 

 

Watching birds overhead and the huge turtles below in the lake, it was a time to reflect as to whether any loss of life has been worth it, let alone the trillions that has been spent in research to get man into space. I came here curious and a bit of a skeptic. As we have wandered around the site we have seen subtle placards mentioning inventions; cochlea implants - a revolution for the deaf. A development nearing completion is a key fob that is aware a child is left in a car seat an alarm will go off if the inner car temperature becomes too high. NASA is of course at the forefront of all things metal, heat resistance and fuel consumption, some things in our everyday life that have come out of their research are to name a few; memory foam, invisible braces, ordinary water filters, scratch-resistant lenses, cordless tools, adjustable smoke detectors, long distance telecommunications, ear thermometers, safety grooving (non-slip landing pads for passenger aircraft), all kinds of nutritional benefits and around one thousand seven hundred and twenty three other bits and bobs.

 

ALL IN ALL TRAGEDY, WILDLIFE AND INVENTIONS - I'M OFF THE FENCE