Returning to Space with Spacex, May 30, 2020

Volume XVIII, Issue XXa: Return to the Final Frontier


Astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken prepare for their historic flight. NASA Photo.

Crewed Flight to the ISS 

NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission will return U.S human spaceflight to the International Space Station from U.S. soil with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on an American rocket and spacecraft for the first time since 2011. In March 2020, at a SpaceX processing facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, SpaceX successfully completed a fully integrated test of critical crew flight hardware ahead of Crew Dragon’s second demonstration mission to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program; the first flight test with astronauts onboard the spacecraft. Behnken and Hurley participated in the test, which included flight suit leak checks, spacecraft sound verification, display panel and cargo bin inspections, seat hardware rotations, and more. The spacecraft will lift off from Pad 39A on May 30, 2020 at approximately 3:22 EDT. NASA Will Provide Live Coverage [click to watch].



Tentative Schedule of the Mission

May 29, Friday

10 a.m. - Administrator Countdown Clock Briefing (weather permitting) featuring:
  NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
  Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana
  NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren
  NASA astronaut Nicole Mann

May 30, Saturday

11 a.m. – NASA TV launch coverage begins
3:22 p.m. – Liftoff
4:09 p.m. – Crew Dragon phase burn
4:55 p.m. – Far-field manual flight test
TBD p.m. – Astronaut downlink event from Crew Dragon
6:30 p.m. – Postlaunch news conference at Kennedy
  Administrator Bridenstine
  Kathy Lueders, manager, NASA Commercial Crew Program
  SpaceX representative
  Kirk Shireman, manager, International Space Station Program
  NASA Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester
(Editor's note: NASA TV's coverage of the mission will be continuous from 11 a.m. Saturday through the post-arrival news conference on Sunday.)

May 31, Sunday

TBD a.m. – Astronaut downlink event from Crew Dragon
10:29 a.m. – Docking
12:45 p.m. – Hatch Open
1:05 p.m. – Welcome ceremony
3:15 p.m. – Post-arrival news conference at Johnson
  NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
  Johnson Space Center Director Mark Geyer
  NASA Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester

June 1, Monday

11:15 a.m. – ISS Expedition 63 Crew News Conference with Commander Chris Cassidy and Flight Engineers Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley of NASA
12:55 p.m. – ISS Expedition 63 In-Flight Event with SpaceX Officials and Employees in Hawthorne, California

June 2, Tuesday

9:20 a.m. – SpaceX employee event and Class of 2020 Mosaic presentation, with NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy, Bob Behnken, and Doug Hurley


To celebrate the 2020 graduating classes, SpaceX and NASA put out a call for students to send in their photos to go to space. The student photos will fly aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule on the Demo-2 mission, which will take off for the International Space Station (ISS) on May 30 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Here is the composite image of the photos.


Live Feed of NASA TV.

America at Her Best, “Tough and Competent”


The storm cells that caused the scrub of Wednesday's launch are seen in this SpaceX photo.


Elon Musk wishes the astronauts a safe trip after suit-up on May 27.

Wednesday was a wonderful day for me. I was watching America at her best. As NASA prepared for the first launch of a crewed spacecraft from the cape in 9 years, a storm system bore down on what was otherwise a flawless preflight sequence. Astronauts were in the spacecraft and fueling was underway but a launch would have violated two weather rules with the charged atmosphere and the menacing storms. Interestingly, NASA and SpaceX officials had fielded a question about ‘Launch Fever’ in a press conference the night before. ‘Launch Fever’ or ‘Go Fever’ is actually a serious concern. Apollo 1 had many problems that if called out would have grounded it, but Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee pressed on. There was pressure to keep the program on schedule. As the astronauts tried to work out a problem in the communication system a frayed wife caused a spark in the oxygen pressurized cabin. The resulting fire killed the three astronauts.

That terrible event created a new culture in NASA. Flight Director Gene Kranz made all of his staff write the words “TOUGH and COMPETANT” on their whiteboards. They would never take anything for granted. They would never be afraid to say “STOP!” No doubt, that ethic was in part responsible for Apollo’s great safety record. In a very dangerous environment, NASA learned how to manage risk. The strengths of many talented people were brought together to pull off a mission that required incredible focus and courage. Katherine Johnson and many other great mathematicians wrestled with the equations that would put the astronauts on the correct course. Although it might not have looked it in the 1960s, NASA was already building an organization that would require an incredibly diverse group of people. At MIT, Margaret Hamilton created much of the computer code necessary for the mission. At Langley, Dorothy Vaughn supervised a group of programmers. Mission Control might not have looked very diverse, but the hundreds of thousands of workers who made the missions happen were. It was America at her best.

Wednesday saw an amazing display of that best. Mission Control has evolved and so has NASA’s culture of safety. Elon Musk spoke of the responsibility he felt to the astronauts and their families. SpaceX and NASA are determined to deliver a safe and reliable spacecraft. With the world watching, as the storms came in, they had the courage of their conviction to call off the launch. A NASA administrator remarked: “It is always better to be on the ground wishing you were flying than to be flying wishing you were on the ground.” I thought of Pete Conrad’s Apollo 12. It was launched during a thunderstorm and was struck twice by lightning. The entire flight program dropped out. Houston asked them to try a reset: “SEC to Auxiliary.” Alan Bean knew what that was and successfully reset the spacecraft’s controls. There was still concern that the parachutes could have been damaged. After Apollo 12 flew, storms were considered a reason to scrub a mission. Sadly, the shuttle era saw the tragic loss of Challenger and Columbia. The shuttles had aged and the tile heat shields were problematic.

I wanted to see a launch Wednesday, but am so glad I saw something better!


The astronauts say goodbye to their families on Wednesday.

These Women Put Man on the Moon

Watching those old space shows as a child, it was pretty obvious that you just got into the spacecraft, took off and flew to wherever in the solar system you wanted to go. It looked deceptively simple – and it was! We had no reason to doubt that man had landed on the moon because Buck Rogers had made it look simple. But when President John F. Kennedy gave the imperative to actually put a man on the moon and bring him safely home, it immediately became clear that the problem was not so simple.

In order to go to the moon, you had to take off and steer a course to where the moon would be when you got there. You had to account for parabolic ascent and elliptical orbits. Your travel map existed in the realm of complex geometry and required brilliant mathematicians to chart. Fortunately the NASA Space Task Group at Langley Research Center had just such a group of mathematicians. They were mostly women and quite a few of them were African American! If you have seen the movie Hidden Figures you learned the stories of three of them, but the complex world of spaceflight engineering actually demanded many more. Many of them worked in the West Computing Group at Langley. Here Katherine Johnson and her colleagues mapped the stars for the astronauts. Yes, they literally mapped the heavens, so that the astronauts could navigate by the stars should their machine computers fail them.

This became essential in missions like Apollo 13, where the spacecraft was actually shut down at a time when critical course corrections had to be made. Katherine Johnson was one essential backup person who the navigation controllers in ‘the trench’ at Mission Control called in to calculate the trajectories of the revised mission. This was essential as you had to sling the Command Module and Lunar Module assembly around the moon about 65 miles from the surface. A miscalculation could have sent the spacecraft crashing to the lunar surface or missing the gravitational effect of the moon entirely – hurtling into deep space with no possibility of return.

To me, the complex mapping, verified by many earth orbit tests, is one reason I have little patience for the skeptics who say the lunar landing was somehow ‘faked.’ The careful calculations and critical launch windows only became known because the people who designed the mission really had to do it.


Some of Langley's first computers. NASA Photo.


In this 1930's era building, the computers plotted man's path to the moon. NASA Photo.


Dorothy Vaughn. NASA Photo.


Katherine Johnson. NASA Photo.


Margaret Hamilton with the printout of the Apollo AGC Software. NASA.

Margaret Hamilton
Software Engineer

Margaret Hamilton was 33 years old when she worked as director of software engineering at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. She and her team defined the design and testing criteria for the software that ran the onboard computer on the Lunar Module and developed the concepts of asynchronous flight software and priority scheduling which saved the Apollo computers from crashing during overloads such as the ones that occurred during the Apollo 11 descent to the moon (the 1201 and 1202 alarms).

The Journey of Apollo Eight


A particularly beautiful diagram of the journey to the moon.
(NASA)

Oleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei

Ukranian Spaceflight Scientist

On June 21, 1897 the world celebrates the birthday of Yuriy Vasilievich Kondratyuk, the famous Ukrainian author of the “route kondratyuka” which the Apollo spacecraft and Lunar Module took to the moon, creating the concept of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous. His real name is Oleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei. He changed it because of the danger posed by the Soviet Union to upper-class Ukranians. This did not prevent him from becoming one of the most famous inventors in the world.


Oleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei plotted the course of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, which was used to put Apollo astronauts on the moon. NASA's John Cornelius Houbolt and Thomas Dolan of Vought Astronautics referred to Sargei's work as they developed the concept for use by the Apollo program.

Tom Dolan and John Houbolt

Thomas Dolan was an American engineer who proposed the first fully developed concept of Lunar orbit rendezvous for the Apollo program while working at Vought Astronautics. Dolan referred to his LOR study concept as Manned Lunar Landing and Return (MALLAR), and it was largely ignored by NASA administrators until Langley engineer John Houbolt began championing the concept in 1961. The proposed idea outlined a smaller spacecraft dedicated only to operate in the vacuum of space. This spacecraft could act as sort of a shuttle between an orbiting "command module" in Lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon. Following this mission profile required the Command/Service Module and Lunar Module to fly all the way to the moon together and undock while in orbit around the moon, at which point the Lunar Module would land on the moon. In order to return, it would lift off again into lunar orbit and perform an orbital rendezvous with the Command/Service Module. The lander's ascent stage would be left behind in orbit, and the crew would return home using the Command/Service Module. This method saved a lot of weight in propellant and spacecraft mass, but did not gain widespread acceptance early on. The risks associated with Lunar orbit rendezvous were initially considered unacceptable by NASA officials. The Gemini missions would later prove that rendezvous and docking was indeed possible in space, paving the way for Dolan's idea to be put into practice. John Cornelius Houbolt was an aerospace engineer credited with leading the team behind the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) mission mode, a concept that was used to successfully land humans on the Moon and return them to Earth. This flight path was first endorsed by Wernher von Braun in June 1961 and was chosen for Apollo program in early 1962. The critical decision to use LOR was viewed as vital to ensuring that Man reached the Moon by the end of the decade as proposed by President John F. Kennedy. In the process, LOR saved time and billions of dollars by efficiently using existing rocket technology. (Wikipedia)


'Earthrise' Photo enhanced by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Imagery. NASA Photo.

Revisiting 'Earthrise'
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter



“Well Done. Good and Faithful Servant”
Memorial Service for Ravi Zacharias




Tribute to Ravi Zacharias by Atlanta Street Artist Joe King. Ravi was not only a great Christian thinker, he built bridges between cultures, and that included his adopted home town of Atlanta, Georgia. Be a Bridge Builder! Be like Ravi!

Page One | Page Two | Page Three
[Click to Read]

Man on the Moon, Apollo 11, Fifty Years Ago!

Volume XVII, Issue II

The First Humans on Another World


The crew of Apollo 11 (from left to right): Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin. NASA Photo.

Fifty years ago on July 16th, the mighty Saturn V rocket carrying Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Kennedy. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin flew with the first Lunar Module capable of actually landing. Though the astronauts had practiced this over and over in simulators, there was no way of knowing what their chances would be of actually landing. Armstrong even admits that he considered this to be merely the first attempt.


Apollo 11 liftoff. NASA Photo.

Armstrong and Aldrin would proceed to fly the Lunar Module toward the lunar surface. Their descent would not be an easy one. Their computer overloaded, almost prompting an abort. Then the computer guided them to a landing area strewn with boulders. Armstrong took manual control of the spacecraft and skimmed along until he saw a better landing sight. Running critically low on descent stage fuel, Armstrong pushed on and brought the Eagle down. With five percent fuel remaining he gently eased the lander down onto the moon. “The Eagle has Landed!”


The Lunar Lander, Eagle. NASA Photo.

John F. Kennedy
Address at Rice University on the Space Effort

September 12, 1962

Speech Transcript

President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb. Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture will be very brief. I am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion.

We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation's own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far out-strip our collective comprehension.

No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of but a half century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter.

Only 5 years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than 2 years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than 2 months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power.

Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight. This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.

So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward-and so will space.

William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it - we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the Office of the Presidency.

In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where five F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48-story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.

Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were "made in the United States of America" and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union. The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the 40-yard lines. Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade we shall make up and move ahead. The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.

And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community.

During the next 5 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60 million a year; to invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over $1 billion from this Center in this City.

To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year's space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous 8 years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year-a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will soon rise some more from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman, and child in the United States, for we have given this program a high national priority even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us. But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, reentering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun - almost as hot as it is here today - and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out, then we must be bold. I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute.

[Laughter]

However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the terms of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.

I am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America.

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there."

Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke in the Rice University Stadium at 10 a.m. In his opening words he referred to Dr. K. S. Pitzer, President of the University, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor Price Daniel of Texas, Representative Albert Thomas of Texas, Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin, Representative George P. Miller of California, James E. Webb, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration., David E. Bell, Director of the Bureau of the Budget.

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, v. 1, 1962, pp. 669-670.

Apollo 11, The Moon Mission
[click to read]


The crew of Apollo 11 relaxes during a training exercise. NASA Photo.

(see more photos)

On Board Apollo Moonships
[click to read]

By Carlos Clarivan

On Board Apollo Moonships contains 100 pages and more than 200 3D-illustrations and images that show in detail the spacecrafts that allowed to travel to the Moon and explore it in the late 1960s and early 70s: from the mighty Saturn V rocket and the Apollo mothership up to the the Lunar Module and the revolutionary Moon Rover. (read more)


From the Earth to the Moon. Illustration by Carlos Clarivan.

Interview with Neil Armstrong!


The first man to set foot on the moon!

In this rare series of interviews, Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, tells the story of the historic mission from his own perspective. [1.] Alex Malley of Australia's EvoTV's The Bottom Line looks at the life and leadership of the lunar mission's commander. Fascinated by aircraft, even at a very early age, Armstrong obtained his pilot's license at the age of fifteen!

He went on to fly combat missions during the Korean War and later became a test pilot. He then became an astronaut as NASA geared up to meet President John F. Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon in the decade and return him safely to earth.

The Russians had already orbited the first satellite, Sputnik, on October 4, 1957 and subsequently orbited cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin as the Americans struggled to develop a dependable booster. After Alan Shepard's short suborbital flight in 1961, President Kennedy challenged the fledgeling space agency to go to the moon.

Armstrong is refreshingly honest in his discussion with Malley. The interview is presented in four parts and is worth watching to the very end. Neil Armstrong expresses very real concern that the space agency lacks the vision and sense of purpose it had in those early years. He ends with a challenge that we as a people would do well to heed and pursue in our own time!

The Full Interview may be found Here [click to listen].


Forty-seven years ago two human beings changed history by walking on the surface of the moon. But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, if only because so few people know about it.

The First Humans on the Moon
Neil Armstrong Reflected in Buzz Aldrin's Visor




NASA Photos

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
The First Humans on the Moon


Neil Armstrong is reflected in the visor of Buzz Aldrin, the first two humans to walk on the moon. Scratchboard, 12" x 12" by Bob Kirchman.

60 Years of NASA
[click to read]

Celebrating Where Art and Science Meet



To celebrate NASA’s 60th anniversary this year, the agency partnered with the National Symphony Orchestra to present a concert in Washington entitled “NSO Pops: Space, the Next Frontier.” NASA mission images complemented performances of space-inspired music in the Kennedy Center’s concert hall, including Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” (“Moonlight”), with a video of the Moon created by NASA science visualizer Ernie Wright.

At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Wright works in the Scientific Visualization Studio, using NASA data to create accurate visuals of celestial bodies. Wright made the lunar imagery accompanying “Clair de Lune” with data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). (read more)


LRO Photo of Earthrise over the moon. NASA Photo.

The World of Tomorrow
Eighty Years Ago the World Came to the NY Fair


Model of the Trylon and Perisphere, symbols of the fair.

When Frank Baum wrote the Wizard of Oz he based the Emerald City on the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition – the Chicago World’s Fair. The fair’s colossal white classical buildings and those of many fairs to follow, would inspire the civic architecture of a young nation coming of age. Baum’s Emerald City was white – until you put on the green glasses! The 1939 World’s Fair, forged in the middle of the Great Depression, sought to bring a new vision for American life as well. It brought more central planning and a stark modernism in its architecture – adding a bit of Art Deco for good measure. The Emerald City of the movie version, made in 1939, looked to the New York fair for its inspiration. That fair was ‘a horse of a different color.’ The Trylon and Perisphere were white, but the buildings were many different colors as they were arranged around the central iconic building. The ‘World of Tomorrow’ is seen from the eyes of a ten year old boy who visited with his family in the Summer of 1939.





This week I will be working with students of Fundoodle Art Camp as they construct a miniature World’s Fair. Here is an introductory video I prepared for them.







The 1964 World's Fair
55 Years Ago, The World Came to New York Again!



Lift your vision high,
   we're in a way we've never been before.
Lift your vision higher,
   and you will see the glory of the Lord.

For without a progressive vision
   we dwell carelessly.
Without a progressive vision
   we dwell carelessly.
So lift your vision higher
   and you will see the glory of the Lord.”
– Unknown


On Saturday, July 6, 2019 the moon was roughly the same waxing phase as it was on July 20, 1969. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, Michal Warzecha took 50 shots with his Canon T3i and 80mm Orion refractor and stacked the images with Autostakker. 
Photo by Michal Warzecha.

Apollonius, Mission to Mars, Phantasies, Verne

Volume XVI, Issue VI

Apollonius
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2019, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 6: The Mad Monk Squadron

Abiyah Ben Gurion seemed most at home in the cockpit of an F17, at least that is how it seemed to Sarah Cohen as she first tried to understand the man who commanded her squadron. He said little. He gave few clues. Most of the men and women in his command knew that he had studied engineering at MIT, but returned home to Israel determined to make as much difference as he could to his tiny country. As a boy, he’d had a fascination with flying and had his pilot’s license as a teenager. He must have had some wild adventures, but he never spoke of any. Outside of command, he rarely spoke unless spoken to. If you met him on the street, his short stature made you miss the fact that he was lean and muscular. He avoided showing that off too. Though there were rumors that he could drink bigger men under the table, he was only actually known to enjoy a polite drink at beer-call with his colleagues and go home early. Serving under him, as a strong pilot in her own right, Cohen began to see inside the man.

Once they were on leave in Jerusalem and as they walked in the old city, a suicide bomber/active shooter situation developed around them. After the initial blast, a sniper was attempting to inflict more casualties on the first-responders. There was a little Arab boy standing dazed in the street and before Sarah could articulate it in a sentence, Ben-Gurion had pushed her into a doorway, rushed out to grab the kid and ducking erratically, managed to return with the frightened child to the safety of the doorway. One of Ben-Gurion’s fellow flyers saw where the shooter was and ended the terror with a well-placed shot from her sidearm. Abiyah was concentrating on comforting the boy and it seemed like he was oblivious to the greater events playing out around him… until he congratulated his colleague: “Nice shot, Rachel.” “He must have some incredible peripheral vision!” Cohen thought to herself. The fact is they both scored exceptionally in that area at about the same level.

His only recreations seemed to be reading and nature photography. That was something he and Sarah shared. Gradually the two pilots found themselves sharing their hobby. Abiyah loved to photograph flowers and often visited the commercial nurseries where thousands grew. His stunning macros actually became quite sought after as he marketed them under a pseudonym. He had just recently become more serious in reading and studying Torah, his mind opened to the possibility of worlds unseen. Sarah was the product of a good Liberal home and initially listened politely as Abiyah shared his personal journey. The fact is the two were drawn to each other and it would be only a matter of time before Sarah thought feelings might be expressed. Abiyah seemed to have one great dream… he wanted to see the desert “blossom like a rose.” Then there came an unprecedented rain and the opportunity for leave. “Sarah,” he said, “I have wanted to see this. I’ve secured a pass for both of us. Would you come with me to see the blooms in the desert?”

Yes, Abiyah!” Sarah spoke before thinking.

They drove to a little hotel by the Sea of Galilee and checked in. From there it was a short drive to the desert where the recent rain had unleashed a vibrant display of wildflowers.

If the truth be known, the two had become quite good friends. They were probably already considered a ‘couple’ by their colleagues but the taciturn Abiyah seemed to take their friendship for granted. “Did he have family?” Sarah wondered. Sarah had learned, however, that there was substance behind the silence. She trusted that as she gave herself to him in her mind.

The two set into photographing desert flowers but Abiyah seemed to have something on his mind. Pilots learn to read cues from one another and Sarah said “Penny for your thoughts?” absently.

Oh, Sarah, I was just thinking…” an exceptionally vivid desert rose seemed to distract him for a moment, “…about you… and, er… us!”

Abiyah Ben-Gurion obviously was pretty lame when it came to pick-up lines. “What about us?” Sarah returned.

I don’t want to live without you.” Abiyah blurted out. “I was just wondering how you felt about me?”

Well, most of our colleagues think we’re already pretty intimate.”

Do they?” Ben-Gurion asked, not so incredulously. “Is it that obvious in my eyes?”

Sarah said nothing.

Even though I am an uncommunicative old goat, you can still see the love that I have for you Sarah?”

I can.”

“…and what do you think of that, dear Sarah? I see your affection for me, but is it love of the same fervor as mine for you?”

I love you, I love you, I love you; Abiyah Ben Gurion.” She replied through tears. “There, does three times make it clear?”

Quite!” he said, as they lost themselves in embrace.

I want you in the worst way,” Ben-Gurion continued after they had walked blissfully through the desert wonderland for some time.

I am yours.” the woman responded, kissing him passionately. “Have me!”

I mean..” the man stammered, “I want you before God! Under a chupah! …and I do want you! Body, Soul and Spirit!" Sarah blushed. In the complex and convoluted world of modern ‘romance,’ such directness caught her off her guard, but in truth, she desired the same and nodded her approval.

The Chupah, and a few friends hastily gathered by the Sea of Galilee witnessed the marriage of Sarah and Abiyah. “We’ll make it public when we can,” Ben Gurion said, “But today we’ve made it forever.”

Someday I want to live in a place that’s called ’Shalom’ and make mad love to you until we fill our house with children.” Abiyah said as they slipped off to consummate their marriage.

Aliyah Ben Gurion would only lay claim to one virtue, that being gratitude. In the time that followed their whirlwind marriage, Sarah would learn that her husband began life as an orphan in London. His early years were wretched ones. His kind adoptive parents gave him a name that would command respect by its mere mention in their home country… and a name that carried with it a great hope and a future!

They indulged his passion for aviation, taught him Hebrew and encouraged his nobler dreams. The boy was filled with wonder at the new world that opened up to him when his parents immigrated to Israel and sent him to university in America. While many young people take their good fortune for granted and often treat their parents and home country with distain, Ben Gurion never got over the wonder.

He was a wild, tough youth of course. But he ultimately channeled that wildness to give something back to everyone who had blessed him… and that is what led him to love Torah. He read the history of his new adopted country. “Was this the work simply of a great people,” he wondered, “or is my land’s miraculous history truly from the hand of the Divine?”

His gratitude found a new focus as he read the Holy Texts. Like most young people he suffered through a series of awkward attempts at romance. When young and beautiful Sarah became part of his life, his gentleness toward her sprang from the most fervent gratitude to the Lord almighty!
(to be continued)



Jules Verne and Walt Disney
Journeys into the Imagination


Reportage sur l'importance de Jules Verne dans le monde créatif de Disney.

Voyage to the Moon


The news footage we watched as fifty years ago astronauts set out for the moon.


Astronaut Buzz Aldrin at the State of the Union Address.

We're Going to Mars by 2024



Saint Catherine of Siena


Icon of St. Catherine of Siena.

Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.”
― St. Catherine of Siena


Volume XVI, Issue VIa

Phantasies
By George MacDonald, Chapter 15

Alexander: "When will you finish Campaspe?"
Apelles: "Never finish: for always in absolute
beauty there is somewhat above art."
~ from John Lyly's play, "Campaspe".

And now, what song should I sing to unveil my Isis, if indeed she was present unseen? I hurried away to the white hall of Phantasy, heedless of the innumerable forms of beauty that crowded my way: these might cross my eyes, but the unseen filled my brain. I wandered long, up and down the silent space: no songs came. My soul was not still enough for songs. Only in the silence and darkness of the soul's night, do those stars of the inward firmament sink to its lower surface from the singing realms beyond, and shine upon the conscious spirit. Here all effort was unavailing. If they came not, they could not be found.

Next night, it was just the same. I walked through the red glimmer of the silent hall; but lonely as there I walked, as lonely trod my soul up and down the halls of the brain. At last I entered one of the statue-halls. The dance had just commenced, and I was delighted to find that I was free of their assembly. I walked on till I came to the sacred corner. There I found the pedestal just as I had left it, with the faint glimmer as of white feet still resting on the dead black. As soon as I saw it, I seemed to feel a presence which longed to become visible; and, as it were, called to me to gift it with self-manifestation, that it might shine on me. The power of song came to me. But the moment my voice, though I sang low and soft, stirred the air of the hall, the dancers started; the quick interweaving crowd shook, lost its form, divided; each figure sprang to its pedestal, and stood, a self-evolving life no more, but a rigid, life-like, marble shape, with the whole form composed into the expression of a single state or act. Silence rolled like a spiritual thunder through the grand space. My song had ceased, scared at its own influences. But I saw in the hand of one of the statues close by me, a harp whose chords yet quivered. I remembered that as she bounded past me, her harp had brushed against my arm; so the spell of the marble had not infolded it. I sprang to her, and with a gesture of entreaty, laid my hand on the harp. The marble hand, probably from its contact with the uncharmed harp, had strength enough to relax its hold, and yield the harp to me. No other motion indicated life. Instinctively I struck the chords and sang. And not to break upon the record of my song, I mention here, that as I sang the first four lines, the loveliest feet became clear upon the black pedestal; and ever as I sang, it was as if a veil were being lifted up from before the form, but an invisible veil, so that the statue appeared to grow before me, not so much by evolution, as by infinitesimal degrees of added height. And, while I sang, I did not feel that I stood by a statue, as indeed it appeared to be, but that a real woman-soul was revealing itself by successive stages of imbodiment, and consequent manifestation and expression.

Feet of beauty, firmly planting
Arches white on rosy heel!
Whence the life-spring, throbbing, panting,
Pulses upward to reveal!
Fairest things know least despising;
Foot and earth meet tenderly:
'Tis the woman, resting, rising
Upward to sublimity,
Rise the limbs, sedately sloping,
Strong and gentle, full and free;
Soft and slow, like certain hoping,
Drawing nigh the broad firm knee.
Up to speech! As up to roses
Pants the life from leaf to flower,
So each blending change discloses,
Nearer still, expression's power.

Lo! fair sweeps, white surges, twining
Up and outward fearlessly!
Temple columns, close combining,
Lift a holy mystery.
Heart of mine! what strange surprises
Mount aloft on such a stair!
Some great vision upward rises,
Curving, bending, floating fair.

Bands and sweeps, and hill and hollow
Lead my fascinated eye;
Some apocalypse will follow,
Some new world of deity.
Zoned unseen, and outward swelling,
With new thoughts and wonders rife,
Queenly majesty foretelling,
See the expanding house of life!

Sudden heaving, unforbidden
Sighs eternal, still the same--
Mounts of snow have summits hidden
In the mists of uttered flame.
But the spirit, dawning nearly
Finds no speech for earnest pain;
Finds a soundless sighing merely--
Builds its stairs, and mounts again.

Heart, the queen, with secret hoping,
Sendeth out her waiting pair;
Hands, blind hands, half blindly groping,
Half inclasping visions rare;
And the great arms, heartways bending;
Might of Beauty, drawing home
There returning, and re-blending,
Where from roots of love they roam.

Build thy slopes of radiance beamy
Spirit, fair with womanhood!
Tower thy precipice, white-gleamy,
Climb unto the hour of good.
Dumb space will be rent asunder,
Now the shining column stands
Ready to be crowned with wonder
By the builder's joyous hands.

All the lines abroad are spreading,
Like a fountain's falling race.
Lo, the chin, first feature, treading,
Airy foot to rest the face!
Speech is nigh; oh, see the blushing,
Sweet approach of lip and breath!
Round the mouth dim silence, hushing,
Waits to die ecstatic death.

Span across in treble curving,
Bow of promise, upper lip!
Set them free, with gracious swerving;
Let the wing-words float and dip.
Dumb art Thou? O Love immortal,
More than words thy speech must be;
Childless yet the tender portal
Of the home of melody.

Now the nostrils open fearless,
Proud in calm unconsciousness,
Sure it must be something peerless
That the great Pan would express!
Deepens, crowds some meaning tender,
In the pure, dear lady-face.
Lo, a blinding burst of splendour!--
'Tis the free soul's issuing grace.

Two calm lakes of molten glory
Circling round unfathomed deeps!
Lightning-flashes, transitory,
Cross the gulfs where darkness sleeps.
This the gate, at last, of gladness,
To the outward striving me:
In a rain of light and sadness,
Out its loves and longings flee!

With a presence I am smitten
Dumb, with a foreknown surprise;
Presence greater yet than written
Even in the glorious eyes.
Through the gulfs, with inward gazes,
I may look till I am lost;
Wandering deep in spirit-mazes,
In a sea without a coast.

Windows open to the glorious!
Time and space, oh, far beyond!
Woman, ah! thou art victorious,
And I perish, overfond.
Springs aloft the yet Unspoken
In the forehead's endless grace,
Full of silences unbroken;
Infinite, unfeatured face.

Domes above, the mount of wonder;
Height and hollow wrapt in night;
Hiding in its caverns under
Woman-nations in their might.
Passing forms, the highest Human
Faints away to the Divine
Features none, of man or woman,
Can unveil the holiest shine.

Sideways, grooved porches only
Visible to passing eye,
Stand the silent, doorless, lonely
Entrance-gates of melody.
But all sounds fly in as boldly,
Groan and song, and kiss and cry
At their galleries, lifted coldly,
Darkly, 'twixt the earth and sky.

Beauty, thou art spent, thou knowest
So, in faint, half-glad despair,
From the summit thou o'erflowest
In a fall of torrent hair;
Hiding what thou hast created
In a half-transparent shroud:
Thus, with glory soft-abated,
Shines the moon through vapoury cloud.
(to be continued)


Unipege. Photo by bob Kirchman

Eugenics Then and Now Northam/DeJarnett



Eugenics Then and Now

Once in the history of our Commonwealth our health system promoted a public policy that promised to deliver advancements in the betterment of the human race. In Staunton, Virginia it was promoted by the director of Western State Hospital, Joseph Spencer DeJarnette (September 29, 1866 – September 3, 1957). As the director of the mental hospital located in Staunton, Virginia from 1905 to November 15, 1943 he was a vocal proponent of racial segregation and eugenics, specifically, the compulsory sterilization of the mentally ill. He was considered a pillar of the community and Adolph Hitler (מַּח שְׁמוֹ) greatly admired his work. Today we shudder at the thought of the forced sterilizations that took place under Dr. DeJarnett’s directorship. The practice only ended in the 1970s.

Today that aspect of eugenics is unthinkable to us, but consider for a moment the recent push in the state legislature to remove restrictions on late-term abortions. Kathy Tran introduced a bill clearly allowing for abortion right up to the point the mother was dilating. The frightening aspect of this bill was that it appeared to push the decision point over the line – allowing for the ‘abortion’ of an already born child. Appearing on WTOP’s Ask The Governor, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a former pediatric neurologist, was asked whether he supported a Virginia legislator’s statement that Virginia Democrats’ proposed legislation would permit abortion for a woman in labor.

He stated: “This is why decisions such as this should be made by providers, physicians, and the mothers and fathers that are involved. When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of the mother, with the consent of physicians, more than one physician by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus which is non-viable. So in this particular example, if the mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if this is what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother.”

Beyond the obvious possibility being allowed for infanticide is the argument for eugenic murder (see his comments about deformities). Ben Shapiro says: “Northam is specifically talking about delivering an infant alive and then asking the mother whether the infant should live or not. This is not an argument about the morning-after pill. It’s not an argument over whether a fetus feels pain. This is a statement that a fully-formed infant, born alive, ought to be murdered if the mother says the infant ought to be murdered.” A call to Northam’s office had a staffer saying that “The Governor is clearly not for infanticide,” and that “he is very protective of children, being a pediatrician.” Still, the news conference remarks do not rule out the possibility of eugenic killing – and eugenics was brought to us by Doctor DeJarnett not so long ago.



I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
– Deuteronomy 30:19


Sunset seen from the ferry from Bali to Lombok Island. 
Photo by S. Kirchman.

The True Champions of Women's Rights
By M. K. Hand

Today’s women's rights champions are too self-centered and busy appropriating titles they don’t understand to even realize that the real Suffragettes in white were pro-life.

The public statements of many early champions of women’s rights in the U.S. make clear their opposition to abortion. Elizabeth Cady Stanton referred to abortion as “infanticide” and wrote that “when we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.” Victoria Woodhull, the first female candidate for president, wrote: “Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth.” And Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S., wrote: “The gross perversion and destruction of motherhood by the abortionist filled me with indignation, and awakened active antagonism.”

Susan B. Anthony (the same woman on the American silver dollar) along with Cady Stanton, founded The Revolution newspaper, which served as a mouthpiece for the American women’s suffrage movement. Anthony funded the paper herself, refusing the capital that would have resulted from allowing advertisements for “restellism,” as abortion was then called. The Revolution published a piece, attributable to Anthony, that said abortion was a choice that would burden both a woman’s “conscience in life and soul in death” and also was ultimately an exploitation of women.

The first memorial to Anthony was established by African Americans. A stained-glass window was installed at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church in Rochester that featured her portrait and the words "Failure is Impossible" (her mantra) on it. It was installed through the efforts of Hester C. Jeffrey, the president of the Susan B. Anthony Club, an organization of African American women in Rochester. Speaking at the window's dedication, Jeffrey said, "Miss Anthony had stood by the Negroes when it meant almost death to be a friend of the colored people.”

Yes, these modern women in white are so out of touch with their own American heritage that it would be laughable if it were not so evil. Eugenics and infanticide are their wicked games, and they do not deserve to even hint that they are, or ever could be, a Suffragette. Sources: Time Magazine and Wikipedia

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
– 2 Chronicles 7:14

Phantasies by George MacDonald, Gemini Moon

Volume XV, Issue XVIII

Phantasies
By George MacDonald, Chapter 5

And she was smooth and full, as if one gush
Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep
Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep
Than bee from daisy."
~ Thomas Lovell Beddoes' Pygmalion.

Sche was as whyt as lylye yn May,
Or snow that sneweth yn wynterys day."
~ from "Romance of Sir Launfal".

I walked on, in the fresh morning air, as if new-born. The only thing that damped my pleasure was a cloud of something between sorrow and delight that crossed my mind with the frequently returning thought of my last night's hostess. "But then," thought I, "if she is sorry, I could not help it; and she has all the pleasures she ever had. Such a day as this is surely a joy to her, as much at least as to me. And her life will perhaps be the richer, for holding now within it the memory of what came, but could not stay. And if ever she is a woman, who knows but we may meet somewhere? there is plenty of room for meeting in the universe." Comforting myself thus, yet with a vague compunction, as if I ought not to have left her, I went on. There was little to distinguish the woods to-day from those of my own land; except that all the wild things, rabbits, birds, squirrels, mice, and the numberless other inhabitants, were very tame; that is, they did not run away from me, but gazed at me as I passed, frequently coming nearer, as if to examine me more closely. Whether this came from utter ignorance, or from familiarity with the human appearance of beings who never hurt them, I could not tell. As I stood once, looking up to the splendid flower of a parasite, which hung from the branch of a tree over my head, a large white rabbit cantered slowly up, put one of its little feet on one of mine, and looked up at me with its red eyes, just as I had been looking up at the flower above me. I stooped and stroked it; but when I attempted to lift it, it banged the ground with its hind feet and scampered off at a great rate, turning, however, to look at me several times before I lost sight of it. Now and then, too, a dim human figure would appear and disappear, at some distance, amongst the trees, moving like a sleep-walker. But no one ever came near me.

This day I found plenty of food in the forest--strange nuts and fruits I had never seen before. I hesitated to eat them; but argued that, if I could live on the air of Fairy Land, I could live on its food also. I found my reasoning correct, and the result was better than I had hoped; for it not only satisfied my hunger, but operated in such a way upon my senses that I was brought into far more complete relationship with the things around me. The human forms appeared much more dense and defined; more tangibly visible, if I may say so. I seemed to know better which direction to choose when any doubt arose. I began to feel in some degree what the birds meant in their songs, though I could not express it in words, any more than you can some landscapes. At times, to my surprise, I found myself listening attentively, and as if it were no unusual thing with me, to a conversation between two squirrels or monkeys. The subjects were not very interesting, except as associated with the individual life and necessities of the little creatures: where the best nuts were to be found in the neighbourhood, and who could crack them best, or who had most laid up for the winter, and such like; only they never said where the store was. There was no great difference in kind between their talk and our ordinary human conversation. Some of the creatures I never heard speak at all, and believe they never do so, except under the impulse of some great excitement. The mice talked; but the hedgehogs seemed very phlegmatic; and though I met a couple of moles above ground several times, they never said a word to each other in my hearing. There were no wild beasts in the forest; at least, I did not see one larger than a wild cat. There were plenty of snakes, however, and I do not think they were all harmless; but none ever bit me.

Soon after mid-day I arrived at a bare rocky hill, of no great size, but very steep; and having no trees--scarcely even a bush-- upon it, entirely exposed to the heat of the sun. Over this my way seemed to lie, and I immediately began the ascent. On reaching the top, hot and weary, I looked around me, and saw that the forest still stretched as far as the sight could reach on every side of me. I observed that the trees, in the direction in which I was about to descend, did not come so near the foot of the hill as on the other side, and was especially regretting the unexpected postponement of shelter, because this side of the hill seemed more difficult to descend than the other had been to climb, when my eye caught the appearance of a natural path, winding down through broken rocks and along the course of a tiny stream, which I hoped would lead me more easily to the foot. I tried it, and found the descent not at all laborious; nevertheless, when I reached the bottom, I was very tired and exhausted with the heat. But just where the path seemed to end, rose a great rock, quite overgrown with shrubs and creeping plants, some of them in full and splendid blossom: these almost concealed an opening in the rock, into which the path appeared to lead. I entered, thirsting for the shade which it promised. What was my delight to find a rocky cell, all the angles rounded away with rich moss, and every ledge and projection crowded with lovely ferns, the variety of whose forms, and groupings, and shades wrought in me like a poem; for such a harmony could not exist, except they all consented to some one end! A little well of the clearest water filled a mossy hollow in one corner. I drank, and felt as if I knew what the elixir of life must be; then threw myself on a mossy mound that lay like a couch along the inner end. Here I lay in a delicious reverie for some time; during which all lovely forms, and colours, and sounds seemed to use my brain as a common hall, where they could come and go, unbidden and unexcused. I had never imagined that such capacity for simple happiness lay in me, as was now awakened by this assembly of forms and spiritual sensations, which yet were far too vague to admit of being translated into any shape common to my own and another mind. I had lain for an hour, I should suppose, though it may have been far longer, when, the harmonious tumult in my mind having somewhat relaxed, I became aware that my eyes were fixed on a strange, time-worn bas-relief on the rock opposite to me. This, after some pondering, I concluded to represent Pygmalion, as he awaited the quickening of his statue. The sculptor sat more rigid than the figure to which his eyes were turned. That seemed about to step from its pedestal and embrace the man, who waited rather than expected.

A lovely story," I said to myself. "This cave, now, with the bushes cut away from the entrance to let the light in, might be such a place as he would choose, withdrawn from the notice of men, to set up his block of marble, and mould into a visible body the thought already clothed with form in the unseen hall of the sculptor's brain. And, indeed, if I mistake not," I said, starting up, as a sudden ray of light arrived at that moment through a crevice in the roof, and lighted up a small portion of the rock, bare of vegetation, "this very rock is marble, white enough and delicate enough for any statue, even if destined to become an ideal woman in the arms of the sculptor."

I took my knife and removed the moss from a part of the block on which I had been lying; when, to my surprise, I found it more like alabaster than ordinary marble, and soft to the edge of the knife. In fact, it was alabaster. By an inexplicable, though by no means unusual kind of impulse, I went on removing the moss from the surface of the stone; and soon saw that it was polished, or at least smooth, throughout. I continued my labour; and after clearing a space of about a couple of square feet, I observed what caused me to prosecute the work with more interest and care than before. For the ray of sunlight had now reached the spot I had cleared, and under its lustre the alabaster revealed its usual slight transparency when polished, except where my knife had scratched the surface; and I observed that the transparency seemed to have a definite limit, and to end upon an opaque body like the more solid, white marble. I was careful to scratch no more. And first, a vague anticipation gave way to a startling sense of possibility; then, as I proceeded, one revelation after another produced the entrancing conviction, that under the crust of alabaster lay a dimly visible form in marble, but whether of man or woman I could not yet tell. I worked on as rapidly as the necessary care would permit; and when I had uncovered the whole mass, and rising from my knees, had retreated a little way, so that the effect of the whole might fall on me, I saw before me with sufficient plainness--though at the same time with considerable indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of light the place admitted, as well as from the nature of the object itself--a block of pure alabaster enclosing the form, apparently in marble, of a reposing woman. She lay on one side, with her hand under her cheek, and her face towards me; but her hair had fallen partly over her face, so that I could not see the expression of the whole. What I did see appeared to me perfectly lovely; more near the face that had been born with me in my soul, than anything I had seen before in nature or art. The actual outlines of the rest of the form were so indistinct, that the more than semi-opacity of the alabaster seemed insufficient to account for the fact; and I conjectured that a light robe added its obscurity. Numberless histories passed through my mind of change of substance from enchantment and other causes, and of imprisonments such as this before me. I thought of the Prince of the Enchanted City, half marble and half a man; of Ariel; of Niobe; of the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood; of the bleeding trees; and many other histories. Even my adventure of the preceding evening with the lady of the beech-tree contributed to arouse the wild hope, that by some means life might be given to this form also, and that, breaking from her alabaster tomb, she might glorify my eyes with her presence. "For," I argued, "who can tell but this cave may be the home of Marble, and this, essential Marble--that spirit of marble which, present throughout, makes it capable of being moulded into any form? Then if she should awake! But how to awake her? A kiss awoke the Sleeping Beauty! a kiss cannot reach her through the incrusting alabaster." I kneeled, however, and kissed the pale coffin; but she slept on. I bethought me of Orpheus, and the following stones--that trees should follow his music seemed nothing surprising now. Might not a song awake this form, that the glory of motion might for a time displace the loveliness of rest? Sweet sounds can go where kisses may not enter. I sat and thought. Now, although always delighting in music, I had never been gifted with the power of song, until I entered the fairy forest. I had a voice, and I had a true sense of sound; but when I tried to sing, the one would not content the other, and so I remained silent. This morning, however, I had found myself, ere I was aware, rejoicing in a song; but whether it was before or after I had eaten of the fruits of the forest, I could not satisfy myself. I concluded it was after, however; and that the increased impulse to sing I now felt, was in part owing to having drunk of the little well, which shone like a brilliant eye in a corner of the cave. It saw down on the ground by the "antenatal tomb," leaned upon it with my face towards the head of the figure within, and sang--the words and tones coming together, and inseparably connected, as if word and tone formed one thing; or, as if each word could be uttered only in that tone, and was incapable of distinction from it, except in idea, by an acute analysis. I sang something like this: but the words are only a dull representation of a state whose very elevation precluded the possibility of remembrance; and in which I presume the words really employed were as far above these, as that state transcended this wherein I recall it:

Marble woman, vainly sleeping
In the very death of dreams!
Wilt thou--slumber from thee sweeping,
All but what with vision teems--
Hear my voice come through the golden
Mist of memory and hope;
And with shadowy smile embolden
Me with primal Death to cope?

Thee the sculptors all pursuing,
Have embodied but their own;
Round their visions, form enduring,
Marble vestments thou hast thrown;
But thyself, in silence winding,
Thou hast kept eternally;
Thee they found not, many finding--
I have found thee: wake for me."

As I sang, I looked earnestly at the face so vaguely revealed before me. I fancied, yet believed it to be but fancy, that through the dim veil of the alabaster, I saw a motion of the head as if caused by a sinking sigh. I gazed more earnestly, and concluded that it was but fancy. Neverthless I could not help singing again--

Rest is now filled full of beauty,
And can give thee up, I ween;
Come thou forth, for other duty
Motion pineth for her queen.

Or, if needing years to wake thee
From thy slumbrous solitudes,
Come, sleep-walking, and betake thee
To the friendly, sleeping woods.

Sweeter dreams are in the forest,
Round thee storms would never rave;
And when need of rest is sorest,
Glide thou then into thy cave.

Or, if still thou choosest rather
Marble, be its spell on me;
Let thy slumber round me gather,
Let another dream with thee!"

Again I paused, and gazed through the stony shroud, as if, by very force of penetrative sight, I would clear every lineament of the lovely face. And now I thought the hand that had lain under the cheek, had slipped a little downward. But then I could not be sure that I had at first observed its position accurately. So I sang again; for the longing had grown into a passionate need of seeing her alive--

Or art thou Death, O woman? for since I
Have set me singing by thy side,
Life hath forsook the upper sky,
And all the outer world hath died.

Yea, I am dead; for thou hast drawn
My life all downward unto thee.
Dead moon of love! let twilight dawn:
Awake! and let the darkness flee.

Cold lady of the lovely stone!
Awake! or I shall perish here;
And thou be never more alone,
My form and I for ages near.

But words are vain; reject them all--
They utter but a feeble part:
Hear thou the depths from which they call,
The voiceless longing of my heart."

There arose a slightly crashing sound. Like a sudden apparition that comes and is gone, a white form, veiled in a light robe of whiteness, burst upwards from the stone, stood, glided forth, and gleamed away towards the woods. For I followed to the mouth of the cave, as soon as the amazement and concentration of delight permitted the nerves of motion again to act; and saw the white form amidst the trees, as it crossed a little glade on the edge of the forest where the sunlight fell full, seeming to gather with intenser radiance on the one object that floated rather than flitted through its lake of beams. I gazed after her in a kind of despair; found, freed, lost! It seemed useless to follow, yet follow I must. I marked the direction she took; and without once looking round to the forsaken cave, I hastened towards the forest.
(to be continued)

A Flight Control History of NASA



Taking Gemini to the Moon
[click to read]

By Amy Shira Teitel


Gemini Lunar Lander Concept. NASA Photo.

Apollo 8 is usually synonymous with Christmas — at least among spaceflight enthusiasts. In 1968, NASA made the daring decision to send Apollo 8 into lunar orbit in the name of getting American men to the moon ahead of the Soviet Union. On Christmas eve, the crew – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders – famously read from the book of Genesis. Sent with only a Command and Service module, the mission is often considered one of NASA’s greatest risks of the space race. But there were other equally audacious lunar missions in the planning stages long before NASA had a viable mission with Apollo 8. As early as 1961, the agency considered sending men to the moon, and even landing them on the surface, with a Gemini spacecraft. Gemini began its life in 1961 as Mercury Mark II. Built around a larger and more sophisticated Mercury capsule, the program was meant to keep NASA in space and work out the kinks out of a lunar flight profile before actually going to the moon. Apollo was already in the early planning stages at this point as the three-man lunar spacecraft. In October 1962, McDonnell Aircraft, the company who built the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, published a study of possible lunar missions of a different structure. Most notably, with a Gemini spacecraft. (read more)


Amish barn raising. File Photo

The Amish and Social Security

In 1935, congress passed The Social Security Act. Included in this legislation was "Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance," provided for those in industry and commerce, and extended to include farm operators in 1955. The  Amish Country News writes:

While the Amish have no objection "paying unto Caesar what is Caesar’s," they do have problems with commercial insurance. In a sense, insurance was seen as not trusting in G-d. Insurance plans were a worldly operation. Plus, the Amish view of separation of church and state normally meant not accepting money from government programs, especially something viewed as welfare. No one could deny that this program was one of paying money to the government and then receiving a benefit in return.

Perhaps most importantly, the care of the elderly is seen as the responsibility of the family and community, not the government. Whether it be additions built onto the main house where grandparents "retire," benefit sales to pay large medical bills, or the community effort of a barn-raising, the Amish truly try to "take care of their own."

The Social Security Tax  was administered by the Internal Revenue Service, beginning in earnest during the 1950's Though Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance was clearly in the description, it was collected as a tax. The issue came to a head when the IRS seized the horses of one Valentine Byler for non-payment of the tax. Public sentiment was stirred as Byler depended on these horses for his livelihood as a farmer.

He received letters of support such as this one from Texas: "May I congratulate you on having the intestinal fortitude to stand up for your beliefs. While I am aware that your action stemmed from a love of your religion rather than from defiance, I hope that your example may serve to point out to some of us just how far our benevolent Government will go to reach its goal of making dependents of us all. There seems to be no place for a person who asks merely to be left alone, and to provide for himself and his family."

In 1961, Amish bishops sent the following petition to the IRS: 

We, as representatives of the Old Order Amish Mennonite Church, do herein express our deep appreciation, and with grateful hearts do we recount the favors and consideration accorded our forefathers in the past...

We believe in a supreme being and also the constitution of the USA, and we feel the Social Security Act and Old Age Survivors Insurance [OASI] is abridging and infringing to our religious freedom. We believe in giving alms in the church according to Christ’s teaching.

It has been our Christian concern from birth of our church group to supply those of our group who have a need, financial or otherwise... Our faith has always been sufficient to meet the needs as they come about, and we feel the present OASI is an infringement on our responsibilities; as a church we feel grieved that this OASI has come upon us...

We Bishops, representatives of the Old Order Churches of the USA are appealing to you to prayerfully consider and reconsider this favor. In G-d we trust."

Ironically, relief was finally forthcoming to the Amish in a provision that was tacked on to the 1965 legislation that established Medicare. Wayne Fisher writes: "Tucked into the 138 page bill was a clause exempting the Old Order Amish, and any other religious sect who conscientiously objected to insurance, from paying Social Security payments, providing that sect had been in existence since December 31, 1950. After Senate approval in July, the signing of the bill by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 13, 1965, made it official and canceled tax accounts of some 15,000 Amish people amounting to nearly $250,000." [2.]

John Jay on Right of Conscience

Consciences of men are not the objects of human legislation…How beautiful appears our expansive constitution in disclaiming all jurisdiction over the souls of men, and securing (by a never-to-be-repealed section) the voluntary, unchecked, moral suasion of every individual.”

— John Jay, the original Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on the right of conscience in the Constitution

A Better Way, Understanding
[click to read]

David Gelernter in the WSJ (Subscription Required)

Constructive national dialogue begins with understanding and that requires going beyond the ‘popular’ caricature. (read more)

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.” – Titus 3:1-8

In the Garden
Charles A. Miles, 1913, Public Domain


In the Garden. Photo by Bob Kirchman

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

Refrain:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

I’d stay in the garden with Him,
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Refrain:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.


Oak branches in snow. Photo by Bob Kirchman

A Restful Walk on a Ridge
Shenandoah Mountain Trail


Shenandoah Mountain Trail begins at this overlook on U. S. 250 at the Western border of Augusta County where Confederate troops from Georgia once manned Fort Edward Johnson,... 
Photo by Bob Kirchman


...shivering in a late Spring snow in 1862.
Photo by Bob Kirchman


Snowy trail. Photo by Bob Kirchman


Mountain Laurel. Photo by Bob Kirchman


Restful Ridgetop. Photo by Bob Kirchman

Lessons from a Dollhouse
By Bob Kirchman


“Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars” – Proverbs 9:1

On a Saturday afternoon that was too cold and wet for outside play, my oldest granddaughter made a wonderful ‘discovery’ in the basement shelves. She found her mother’s dollhouse. Of course she wanted me to take it down for her and she enjoyed exploring it, but it wasn’t long before she wanted to keep hold of the magic. With mom’s approval we started planning some ‘improvements’ to the house. The little house would once again ‘live’ in daylight.

The little house, you must know, did not begin its life as a project for my daughter. Actually she was still pretty small when I made the house for our neighbor’s foster child, who stayed at our house afternoons after school. My daughter had plenty of blessings from grandparents. This little girl did not. The original house took shape out of spare parts and paints from the model shop where I built architectural models. When it was done it was painted in the rather bland ‘spec’ colors the designers of the day demanded. Still, it was a wonderful part of a little girl’s life. When she got older and went to live with family in another state, she gave my daughter the house.

At that point the interior underwent a major makeover at the hands of my daughter. It truly became her dollhouse. But the little house – like the wonderful houses in Williamsburg – or any multi-generational house for that matter, had already a wonderful history of blessing to it. Now my granddaughter took up the task. “Can we paint it red?” she asked. “My room is sage green but I REALLY like RED!” she sort of absently wondered. “Sure,” I said, and the project began. With a little help from me, my granddaughter selected the color to be painted on the siding. We got the paint from Walmart, where you can buy some really nice little bottles of acrylic paint for fifty cents for 2 ounces. Surely I would need more to cover ‘spec’ tan siding with deep red, so I looked at the larger bottles: eight ounces for $2.50.

My mother was an engineer/mathematician for the Martin Company in Baltimore in the 1940s. She would take her slide rule to the grocery store and often exclaimed that the bigger size was not cheaper. Mom invented unit pricing! I could feel her smiling from Heaven as I walked out of the store with four little bottles of red paint! My pneumonia bout put off our painting party for a bit but soon enough my granddaughter had a half day off from kindergarten. We set to work! Even with the strongly charged brush of a five year old, I was amazed at the coverage of the little paint bottles. We had two coats on the house before we finished the first two once bottle! I fixed the door of the house and it was time to play! There was one more surprise for that day involving the little house though. When two year old little sister showed up, brimming with curiosity, the oldest granddaughter happily invited her into the play! With some judicious removing of the more delicate and small items, this became a wonderful thing!

Some possessions may ‘own’ us, demanding our energy for their upkeep and continued service, but I think some wonderful things truly come to serve us – to express the nature of our souls. They become an extension of our nobler selves – our servant’s hearts, reaching through generations. We need more of those things.