rmg@ultra.com (Rich Geiger) (12/22/89)
brantley@cerritos.edu writes: >"ICBM and Prayer Time" >One Sunday night I was driving back to San Luis Obispo from Los Angeles. Just >north of Santa Barbara before Highway 101 turns inland at Gaviota I saw a ICBM >take off from Vandenberg. At first I did not know what was happening. I >pulled the car over to the side of the road and prayed it was a test flight. It's probably when you see three or more go at once that you should begin to get real nervous. But I know the feeling. The day Challenger was lost, I happened to be at home sick; there was some inane game show on TV, and then the picture suddenly broke over to show a launch contrail, and for a good thirty seconds there was no information whatsoever as to what we were being shown. Big white plume against a deep blue sky, and some static on the audio. No "this is an XBC special bulletin" header or nuthin. I hadn't been aware that there was going to be a shuttle launch that morning, and the first thing that came to mind was that this was from a TV remote crew near an ICBM farm somewhere, and we were watching something Bad happen. Of course, there were a number of reasons not to worry on that particular occasion, once I thought about it, but it did point out that for us denizens of the late 20th century, the image of sudden unexpected rocket launches can be truly terrifying, especially the idea that it could just...happen, at any moment, no warning at all. (Kind of like an earthquake, where I'm sitting right now...) -- - Rich Geiger Disclaimer: You'll never see the one that's going to get you, anyway. Ultra Network Technologies / 101 Daggett Drive / San Jose CA 95134 rmg@ultra.com ...!ames!ultra!rmg (408) 922-0100 [w] (408) 739-7911 [h]
tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) (12/23/89)
In article <1989Dec21.232846.16317@ultra.com> rmg@ultra.com (Rich Geiger) writes: >The day Challenger was lost, I happened to be at home ... > I hadn't been aware that there >was going to be a shuttle launch that morning, and the first thing >that came to mind was that ... > we were watching something Bad happen. You were... you were. -- "We walked on the moon -- (( Tom Neff you be polite" )) tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET