The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Test Flight Brought Me To Tears

in #spacex7 years ago

"What Hath God Wrought?"
—Samuel Morse—


"People came from all around the world to see what will either be a great rocket launch or the best fireworks display they've ever seen."
—Elon Musk—


I'll admit to being an emotional person.

Even so, I was surprised yesterday as I watched the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy test flight, and found myself crying.

Why would I have such an emotional reaction to a test flight?

Table of Contents

Falcon Heavy: First Test Launch
Image courtesy of SpaceX and http://unsplash.com

"The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." - Psalm 19:1

As a lover of science fiction since early childhood, and as an amateur astronomer, when I look into the heavens, I see the glory of God. I see an unimaginably vast universe created by the hand of Jesus, the same God who created you and me.

Andromeda

By NASA/JPL-Caltech (NASA) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (click for larger image)

I long to go out there and see it all,

to explore the nooks and crannies of the lava tubes on the Moon and on Mars.

I long to stand on a planet circling a star near the center of a globular cluster, multi-colored stars filling the sky at all hours of the day and night. I long to travel to the Magellanic Clouds and look back at the Milky Way.

Pioneers like Elon Musk and companies like SpaceX are, little by little, bringing the day closer when I may be able to do those things. Musk and a few other "movers and shakers" are opening up the space frontier on our behalf. My prayer is only that one day, they too might open their eyes and recognize the God who created it all.

The Falcon Heavy side booster landing was epochal.

Rarely have I seen a display of technology with such inherent beauty. Musk himself apparently had a similar reaction. He said:

"Those two side boosters—if you guys were here, you saw the landing. I was happy 'cause that was probably the most exciting thing I've ever seen—literally ever..."

Please take a couple of minutes to experience it yourself (click image below).

Falcon Heavy Twin Booster Landing—Courtesy of SpaceX and YouTube

As the landing progressed,

it became possible to see that, although the views from each of the boosters initially seemed to be identical, they actually came from two distinct viewpoints.

The crowning sight was to see the two boosters slowly descend, side by side, to a perfect landing. This is the embodied realization of the science fiction vision of my childhood and youth. Real, live rockets, capable of taking men—and more specifically, this man—into space, to explore, learn, and perhaps one day, live.

What hath God wrought, indeed.


~FIN~


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hello @creatr,
how are you, it's a great rocket launch video, landing style is very nice, I saw the first time, always I like you, your think and idea excellent always, thank you for everything
resteem done

Thanks, and thank you for the re-steem.

you are most welcome my dear

Your post and your desire to explore out into the far reaches of the creation is one I too share (apparently also a love for Sci-Fi!) Your reaction reminds me of the tears I shed when I encountered the closing scenes of CS Lewis' The Last Battle when it describes people running on and on to explore and search the "far country." In so many ways space and its vast expanses are our living metaphor for the near endless possibilities we have to explore how vast and creative God truly is. I too long to go "out there" and what's really fun is that we have a PROMISE that says that someday we will go there and so much farther!
WEEE (I mean come on how can one not squeal at least a little bit at this right????)
~Eric

SQUEEEEEEE!!!*

Yeah, man, Hallelujah! Thanks to our Daddy, we'll get to do it all...

I could point you to lots of my other writing in which I celebrate this truth that completely resonates within me.... But I'll start with just one today:

I Will Write The Stories, Celebrating...

And, yes, I love Lewis's description of "further up and further in." YES!

We are joint heirs of the entire, frickin' UNIVERSE!!! How COOL is that! :) :) :)

I'll be watching for you in Discord... ;)

"...the near endless possibilities..."

Nay, brother.... the LITERALLY ENDLESS possibilities... I can't wait. ;)

Thanks for your very responsive response. ;)

😄😇😄

@creatr

You two!!! Lolol I'm sitting here smiling reading your comments cuz it's like youre running to each other's house to show off and share your latest toy!!! Lololol contagious :)

I giggled when @acronym responded on your post. Anyway, the launch also brought me to tears. On another note, it reminded me of the Challenger which had the opposite fate. It was a tear-jerking event that I wished i did not watch and read online.

So true about Challenger. That was a very sad day that I remember all too well.

I'd never seen @acronym before now; I have no idea where it got "H2" in my article?

Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

Hi dear,
Nice post, nice experience, Falcon rocket landing video was amazing, day to day science rising, I like your post, thank you
Upvote and resteem done

Thank you.

I watched it too it was fantastic!

Glad you saw it as well. It was a real delight. I want to ride on one... :D

I would have been emotional too if I had seen it.
Hope you are well. I'm going to the beach this weekend and will try to take some beach shots to share with you :)

Thanks, @lakshmi. :D

Enjoy the beach! ;)

I enjoyed the beach. Below is your photo and you can read the haiku the trip to the beach inspires here:
Link to my post

Photo by me. Right click for larger image.

Thank you, @lakshmi!

It looks like it was a lovely day, and there were others enjoying the beach as well.

I will!

a very inspiring launch - wished it were a DeLorean :)

Hahahaha! Back to the future, indeed...

Tesla is the new, successful DeLorean... ;)

For some reason, I was more impressed that the boosters landed....I mean the rockets was amazing too. I wondered why NASA doesn't have this kind of equipment as well.

Do you know I came to the Lord on the day the Challenger blew up in the sky? 1986 on that day.

I giggled at your enthusiasm, not because it's funny but bc you are so full of joy.

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

NASA is a government organization. Government, by design, has perverse incentives that do not allow for developing anything of high value at low cost.

I'm imagining being there to hear you giggle, and then giving you a big ol' hug. :D

Yep, I am a child at heart. And I love that old hymn. What joy, indeed! :D

Very interesting day to be saved. I can only imagine. Maybe you'll write the story sometime? ;)

I could....I never thought to share something on here. I'll have to give it thought because it's a long dark twist pre life story. It involves the occult, psychics, and things of that nature that I have to be careful about sharing lest some be too interested in demonic tales.

I shared one story on your friend's post a while ago. But that was a story. Telling my I was found story is different. I'll give it much thot.

Yes...I am a giggler. Sometimes inappropriate nervous giggler....always will have that little girl in me and I'm okay with it. And I would love a hug. :) See children at heart make good friends.

Ah, I'm sure that with all the mad writing skills in your own hand and in your household, you can write the story without presenting undue temptation to others. Please alert me when you do?

Hugs! :D Perhaps one day we'll go outside and play together, my fellow child... ;)

That was spectacular!!!! It was so elegant how they came down!!! And I know how emotional you must have been!!!! Hehehe your flying house is one step closer, my friend 😊

This was a fact of world trancendencia, all the Argentine media devoted great part of their time to this transmission.
Thank you very much dear friend @creatr for sharing all this material
I wish you a prosperous week

Thanks! Glad to hear that Argentina is interested in SpaceX. :D

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