I Wonder

I took another opportunity to watch a flyover of the International Space Station tonight. Of course the Space Shuttle is currently docked with it, but you can't tell that by watching that bright point of light making it's slow, steady crawl across the twilight sky.

At the home of The Mole Hole, we are sort of in the flyway of two major airports; O'Hare and Midway. They keep the night sky fairly populated with little flashing lights of white and red, mostly on the same paths night after night. But the ISS and Shuttle are different. A very bright, steady glow that is not generated by some little strobe light, but by the sun reflecting off the ships themselves. At a height 250 miles, that's the only way you're going to see it.

To a geek like me, this is a real treat. A tremendous amount of pride and still some wonder at the very idea of people up there, and the fantastic science that makes it happen. Mostly American too.

I wonder how many of the six or seven million people in Chicagoland were looking up at the same thing I was, when there are so many little lights in the sky all of the time? Probably only a few, although maybe I'd be surprised. I'd like to think that there is still some interest in this incredible accomplishment. Maybe it's just that you had to have lived before there was any space program, or in my case, when there had only been a Russian pooch and a couple of chimps.

I guess it's just the natural order to have "wonder" surpassed by mundane. It happens with so many things in life. Too bad. The world could use a lot more wonder.