Mission Control

It seems like Houston will not get one of the Space Shuttles to display. A bit odd, considering that the city is, along with Cape Canaveral, the backbone of the American Space Program. It looks as if California, Florida, DC, and New York will be the recipients of the honor of displaying a shuttle. Ok it is not the end of the world but let us think about this a bit.

California has a lot of space related industry and has facilities that are an important part of the space program. No problem there in my mind. They deserve a shuttle.

DC is home to the Smithsonian. Of course a shuttle should be on display at the nation's premier museum. It would be stupid not to house one there.

The shuttle is launched from Cape Canaveral and it goes without saying that a shuttle needs to be on display in the Sunshine State. As a matter of record I had ring side seats to the very first shuttle that ever went into space. Yes sir from the flying bridge of the USCGC Courageous (since sold to the Sri Lanka) I witnessed the launch with the aid of the "big eyes." It was almost like I was right on top of the thing. Great. Of course I did not appreciate the significance at the time. I can also remember twice being the guard ship on the recovery of the external tanks. Those would come back to earth and land in the ocean about 150 miles (I think) or so out to sea. The initial portion of that duty was pretty cool. A helo was assigned to harass Soviet "trawlers" that were stationed in the area. Pretty interesting.  The second part of that duty was terrible. Escorting tugs towing the tanks into port was a long and boring ordeal. The tugs barely made headway and it took a good while to get them back into port. Be that as it may, Florida certainly should have a shuttle to display.

New York? New F-ing York? That is just pure stupidity. Nothing against those fine folks, but just what does New York have to do with the space program? Of course it is a "Blue" state.......That probably says it all right there. Hope those folks appreciate the hard work and sacrifice that made us (at one time) the premier leader in space exploration.

Why does Houston deserve to display a shuttle? If you have to ask that them perhaps you are either very young or just very stupid. JSC is in the Clear Lake area of Houston number one. You know the place that houses mission control. There are also many astronauts and other key personnel who live in the area and they deserve to have one of these historic pieces of equipment on display locally. A slap in the face to those fine people if you ask me. Also there is the little episode of one of the ships exploding over East Texas and scattering debris (and human remains) all over the piney woods. It is a slap in the face to their memory to not have a shuttle in Texas. A slap in the face.

Interestingly enough I heard a caller on one of the local talk shows (Outlaw Dave) mention that it is Dumbass Sheila Jackson Lee's fault that Houston did not get a shuttle. A bit of a stretch there of course, but Sheila does seem to get involved in issues that are none of here business and can't seem to make her voice heard about something like this. I guess that it is because JSC is in the (predominantly white and Soviet spy laden) suburbs. Just not important enough for her to get involved I guess. Not near as important as proposing some sort of federal recognition of Michael Jackson. If she was a congresswoman worth her salt she would have had a private interview with Obama and ruined her trademark red dress or perhaps allowed her crown weave to be soiled. I jest of course and no, I don't believe it was necessarily her duty to lobby for a local home for a shuttle. She is such a dumbass though that I could not help taking a shot. A bit immature I know, but as I have noted before, my immaturity runs pretty deep.

The whole thing is not the end of the world of course, but one has to wonder if there is some underhanded politics involved. The majority of Texans would not vote for President Obama for the commissioner of the local mosquito control district.

Oh well.