AFTER 30 YEARS, THE FINAL LANDING OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE.....50 YEARS AFTER AMERICA'S FIRST MAN IN ORBIT...........

Yesterday marked the 42nd anniversary of American astronauts first landing on the Moon, and Neil Armstrong's definitive declaration, "One small step for Man.....One giant leap for (hu)Mankind...........Early this morning the Space Shuttle completed its final mission into the orbits of the sky.  30 Years after it's debut launch, 135 space shuttle missions later, the statistics attained in this three decades, include 541 million miles traveled; 21,000 orbits of the Earth completed; 37 visits to the Space Station; and today's landing is the 78th, to occur at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I find it phenomenal to think that it was thirty years ago that the first Space Shuttle was launched.  Like with the earlier facets of the Space Program in the United States, the Gemini and Apollo missions of the 1960's and 1970's, amidst all the success, there has also been sadness and sorrow, as two of the Space Shuttle launchings failed, killing its occupants.  The first Space Shuttle tragedy occurred in January 1986, when I was still in my last semester of seminary formation, at St. Patrick's in Menlo Park. On that morning which was the launch withe astronauts of a crew that included other lay professionals, including Christa McAuliffe, America's First Teacher in Space, I was watching the live coverage up in my room, until time came to go down to the Chapel, for Morning Mass.  As the presider began the Liturgy, he announced that other staff had just informed him that the Space Shuttle had exploded just moments following its launch.  So we began Mass by especially praying for those aboard and their family members and NASA colleagues.  The future of further space exploration by the United States will now be limited to having our American astronauts go into orbit with Russian cosmonauts on Soyuz, to the International.  Our National Aeronautical Space Administration, (NASA) will re-group, as budget cuts are absorbed and well down the line perhaps late in this, or early in the next decade, missions to outer space, perhaps even Mars or Venus may leap from the drawing board to the forefront of more American adventures in the skies of heaven of outer space...........Congratulations And Commemoration Of All The Astronauts And Those Who Have Been An Essential Part Of These Past 30 Years,   Fr.  Troy