Apollo Day, 36 A.A.

[athelind]

20 July 1969


Hope Eyrie

Copyright ©1975 by Leslie Fish
Copyright assigned to Random Factors


Worlds grow old and suns grow cold
And death we never can doubt.
Time's cold wind, wailing down the past,
Reminds us that all flesh is grass
And history's lamps blow out.

    But the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
    Time won't drive us down to dust again.

Cycles turn while the far stars burn,
And people and planets age.
Life's crown passes to younger lands,
Time brushes dust of hope from his hands
And turns another page.

    But the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
    Time won't drive us down to dust again.

But we who feel the weight of the wheel
When winter falls over our world
Can hope for tomorrow and raise our eyes
To a silver moon in the opened skies
And a single flag unfurled.

    But the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
    Time won't drive us down to dust again.

We know well what Life can tell:
If you would not perish, then grow.
And today our fragile flesh and steel
Have laid our hands on a vaster wheel
With all of the stars to know

    That the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
    Time won't drive us down to dust again.

From all who tried out of history's tide,
Salute for the team that won.
And the old Earth smiles at her children's reach,
The wave that carried us up the beach
To reach for the shining sun.

    For the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
    Time won't drive us down to dust again.

Comments

[silussa.livejournal.com]

No, we won't be driven down; we'll stay there voluntarily instead, without the will to go back, let alone further.

[shavastak.livejournal.com]

Some of us happen to like our dustball. Besides, when a piece of 1x2' foam can smash a 2' hole in a vital piece of our spacecraft, we must realize that space travel is still in its infancy. It will grow up, but you gotta give it time. And the space-shuttle grounding from that incident hasn't lasted nearly as long as the one from the previous disaster. Take heart.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

The problem is that the design of the Shuttle was, simply, pretty bad. (ex: NASA *NEVER* used solid fuel boosters for manned flight before the Shuttle) Then add on the age of the vehicle....hell, they have to go hunting on eBay for replacement parts that aren't made anymore.

It's kinda hard to stay optimistic, under the circumstances.

[shavastak.livejournal.com]

Yeah...:( Keep in mind, though, that they already have plans to change to a new design. I think they're still trying to find a new design, though.

On the other hand, Spaceship One! Put your faith in the ingenuity of the independents.

[hoodahdc.livejournal.com]

http://moon.google.com

Zoom in to max for extra fun.

[shavastak.livejournal.com]

Yummy!

[iridium-wolf.livejournal.com]

hee!

[athelind.livejournal.com]

You really know how to cheer someone up. Must be a Dark Elf thing.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

I think shavastak has it right, unfortunately; hope on the individuals, because the government is answering the call of the "common man".....and it isn't fun.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

The goverment is answering the call of the Rich Motherfuckers, who have a vested interest in keeping everyone else in the dirt.

[paka.livejournal.com]

Someone will go up again.

It might be the PRC. It might be us competing with the PRC. It might be some sort of EU thing trying to carve out a niche for themselves to outcompete us Americans. It might be some corporation that's figured out how to offset the cost of going into space with cheap mining and the blessings of their bought politicians. It probably won't happen as some Kennedy era idealistic crusade, but people will go back at some point.