January 28, 1986. I was sick, home from school (first grade) sitting on the couch. Mom was flipping channels, looking for her infernal soap operas. Happened to come across the live launch. The loss of Challenger set many things in motion for me. Spaceflight became a passion. An obsession. I used to pore over books about the shuttle like I was chasing a ghost. I wanted to learn everything about the shuttle program. I wanted to know how and why things went so wrong so quickly. I started devoping a huge interest in aviation over the years as a kid. Watching planes fly was just fascinating. I can't explain it, I just knew it was a part of my life. I enlisted in the US Navy as an aircraft maintainer with later plans of becoming an officer in hopes of one day being an astronaut. After seeing some things that I morally or ethically don't necessarily believe in or agree with, I knew being an officer - and ultimately a military astronaut - wasn't going to happen. Instead, I starting looking around, taking advantage of this handy tool we call the Internet (circa 1999) and was still disappointed at the relative lack of insight and technical information available to the public, though it was a lot better than the minimalistic "oh by the way" blurbs typically taking up 7 or 8 lines in a side article in the newspaper.
As the internet grew, message boards started popping up. Social networking started being more accessible, along with user generated content (Youtube). "Great! Now I can watch almost any shuttle launch, highlights, landings I want to!" Twitter appeared a little later for me, followed by Facebook. I just refused to use it because I had underwhelming experience with myspace. I just didn't know how to use myspace as a tool and have abandoned it altogeter now. Twitter and Facebook have been very important to me for keeping up to date with everything from the short 7-8 line blurbs of yore about lost tool bags or broken toilets in space, all the way up to detailed schematics about OMS pod removal or SARJ inspections, companies offering zero G parabolic flights, and this new (duh!), exciting concept of NewSpace. NASA's boring. We all know that, but if you've noticed over the last several missions, NASA's finally just barely starting to realize they could do much more to educate the masses than just be dry....boring....emotionless....zzzzzzz....Oh, sorry!. Now they've got snazzy intro's for the astronauts and some footage shot at various facilities, and are still about 10 years behind the rest of us.
I'm certainy not an expert, but I do love spaceflight. Specifically, I love the shuttle program, but I'm not a hugger. I'm a cheerleader, but I know the clock is ticking. Those orbiters are 30 years old. Why would I want them to jeopardize the forgotten heroes of kids? Let the remaining fleet retire without unnecessary risk to the crew. I'm known for making some off the hip, tongue-in-cheek comments about a certain former NASA Administrator and his ill-fated concept of the next step. But at the same time, I'm more than happy to take time out of my day to answer kids' or anyone's questions about space and spaceflight ad nauseum (see Jeph at Spacevidcast.com - selfless plug).
I'm here to entertain, inform, and educate people (including myself, as I'm still learning) about space as best as any space junkie can. The STwS, Spacevidcast, NSS, Yuri's Night, NewSpace, etc. is all part of that. It's literally something I've always wanted to do since coming into my own about the black stuff overhead. We're to the point now that I don't need to be in the military to be an astronaut. None of us do, and we're starting to realize this. As cynical as I am about humanity, being as relatively young it is, compared to the rest of the cosmos, the truth is, it's only because I want us to become more intelligent so that we CAN survive beyond our cradle we call Earth. NewSpace is our way of climbing out of the crib. We just need to do it before the house catches on fire. I can't wait to see what's next for us...which is part of why I've firmly decided that now is the best time to go back to (A&P) school and get some fancy book learnin', so I can help contribute to building and maintaining rockets and jet engines so that things like January 28, 1986 or February 1, 2003 don't happen again. Granted, I'm a little late in the game at 31, but I'd probably blow it off even longer if it weren't for space media.
So that's my story. Not sure how many will read it, but it's something I've taken some time to think about. Thanks for reading.
For those of you disinterested in reading the above blathering, I summarize it as; Space is cool! Tell your friends! Then let's go see it for ourselves (or in HD)!
-Jeph
