a rocket launch!


3, 2, 1 and Blast Off!
Tons of metal tear through the skies, moving up towards the heavens on a pillar of smoke.

I dont know if you realize it but there is incredible beauty with which that rocket embarks on it's journey to outer space. during the couple of minutes it takes for the rocket to climb to outer space and deploy the shuttle or satellite, i feel joy, happiness, i see beauty and most of all, i feel alive.

and all this from watching a live web telecast. i think i'll have a heart attack if i ever see a launch with my own eyes. i had come upon a link last summer to watch the live webcast of the Space Shuttle Atlantis's last journey. For 5 hours that day i had shut my windows, locked my door, put the speakers on full and was looking at a motionless screen for 3 hours, looking at the pre-launch tests and reports on previous shuttle launches and interviews from astronauts. and finally, i got to watch 2 minutes of sheer awesomeness as the shuttle lifted off. 2 minutes, that's all it took. 
and i've been googling for about rocket launches since. 


Check out this video and tell me if you dont have goosebumps. And if you dont know, the Saturn 5 rocket, the rocket that put neil armstrong (and another guy whom you havent heard about) on the moon is still the most powerful rocket in the world!

I have been putting off writing this article for about an year now. but last week was the one year anniversary of Atlantis's retirement and i felt all those emotions that i had experienced that day, still wondering if i would ever be able to look at a rocket launch close-up. or maybe even go up there! 

But alas, the sad truth is that america cancelled the shuttle program and moved all of it's shuttles into museums for showing them off, rather than using them. and now, russians are the people vested with the responsibility to take astronauts to the ISS. and with their poor record, low level of innovation compared to the american shuttle program, we need new players in the business.

Virgin Atlantic is a runner up in the business of space travel.
But the most promising of them all is a private firm called SpaceX which recently sent a module, using their own indigenous rocket Falcon 9. They are the first ever private firm to have sent a module into outer space and to have docked with the ISS. We'll have to pay close attention as to how Elon Musk (the founder of SpaceX) changes the area of space exploration!

The future of space travel is something to follow closely as it included people living on the moon, colonies on mars, using He on the moon for fusion and space elevators to easily go into outer space.
And i do hope that i live to be able to see a revolution as big as the one that space shuttles brought to Space travel and exploration.

Adios. 

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