9 thoughts on “Cygnus Is In Orbit”

  2. There’s an alternate universe where you posted “What a great start to 1974!! Congratulations Orbital!!” as we celebrated the first private Skylab resupply mission. In our universe we got disco and a decades long government monopoly on space travel.

    1. I actually attended both the Skylab Workshop launch (of the last Saturn V) and the first crew launch, both at the crawler way (as close as you could get). It was the only game in town, and it was wonderful. The best part was rescuing the almost failed Skylab launch with equipment and procedures developed in a couple of weeks…

      1. Is there a part of you that is sad about the change in direction, in retrospect? In a way, the ISS shows the potential we saw with Skylab, but with the almost unavoidable feeling that we’re peeling potatoes instead of reaching across the solar system.

        For me, jumping between then and now, I can’t shake the lowered expectations. I think it weighs on us all, every day, people who grew up into a world where our dreams are dry as dust, yet the embers of hope still spark, ll haunting us and driving us, a people searching for either programmatical redemption or the recovery of the magic dreams of their youth about a thrilling life in the heavens above or on far flung worlds, which didn’t exactly work out as we all planned.

        1. Yes to all that you said, George. Back in the 1970s, I certainly expected that we would have a permanent moon base by now, and would be beginning the manned exploration of Mars.

          But personally, as I enter my late 50s, I’m more excited now about our future in space than I have been in many years. We’re seeing the beginnings of a commercial space industry, there are several new spacecraft that are about to come online, and the concept of space as a tourist destination is starting to take hold.

          I got up at 3:00 AM on a work night to watch the launch of the first Dragon to the ISS, and saw the berthing a couple of days later. That made me feel like a teenager again.

          What I find frustrating now is that so many people have no idea that any of this is going on. As MfK said, back in the old days NASA and Apollo was the only game in town, and if some people didn’t avidly follow it, they at least knew what was happening. Today I encounter many people who are convinced that American manned space flight ended with the Shuttle’s retirement, and that our glory days are all behind us. Me, I think the Space Age is just starting to get interesting.

          1. This is the most interesting time in space technology development since Apollo. The things that are happening or are on the cusp of happening like nanosats, commercial spaceflights, private space stations and the like were barely the stuff of science fiction back in the 1960s.

  4. I was at work at the time of the launch, but fortunately it coincided with my lunch break, so I could watch the whole thing without trying to convince my boss that I could watch it while still getting my work done.

    And I absolutely love the fact that Wallops Island has finally become a serious spaceport after all these years. It’s 160 miles from me, so I can watch night launches from my front yard.

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