Eileen Collins Rocks
Aug. 31st, 2005 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rabid1stShe's the commander of the last shuttle mission. Listening to her talk about landing the shuttle by hand and docking with the space station I am reminded of all those morons who question the idea of women in combat. "What if they broke a nail or had some kind of woman trouble?" How many of those manly men, I ask myself, could land the space shuttle. She's been commander for two missions and served on two others and she's so matter-of-fact about getting the bad news about that foam this last time. I was back on earth in my comfy chair and sweating...she's in space and the one that had to land the shuttle. But as she was talking you knew she wasn't going to be shaken by the image of the fatal mission in her mind's eye. She completed the mission.
17,500 mph...that's the speed of take off...8 minutes from Zero to 17,500 mph...Eileen Collins' hand on the stick. Take that Indy Car backer who claimed women should be color-matched with the kitchen appliances.
Meanwhile...New Orleans is having a very hard time of it here on Earth. I want to encourage everyone to donate cash, blood or whatever you can to help the homeless of New Orleans but at the same time I would like to point out (mostly to the News Channel Anchors) that this tragedy is in no way like the recent tsunami that claimed nearly 500,000 lives in multiple countries and set the earth itself ringing like a bell. Nor is it anything like Hiroshima. It is like Camille...a very bad hurricane. Compare it to the San Francisco Earthquake if you must...or the Great Chicago Fire...but not the tsunami.
Rae
Of course...on the other hand...you know it's bad in the Big Easy when you have this report...
"Officials said a 3-foot (0.9-meter) shark had been spotted cruising the flooded streets."
17,500 mph...that's the speed of take off...8 minutes from Zero to 17,500 mph...Eileen Collins' hand on the stick. Take that Indy Car backer who claimed women should be color-matched with the kitchen appliances.
Meanwhile...New Orleans is having a very hard time of it here on Earth. I want to encourage everyone to donate cash, blood or whatever you can to help the homeless of New Orleans but at the same time I would like to point out (mostly to the News Channel Anchors) that this tragedy is in no way like the recent tsunami that claimed nearly 500,000 lives in multiple countries and set the earth itself ringing like a bell. Nor is it anything like Hiroshima. It is like Camille...a very bad hurricane. Compare it to the San Francisco Earthquake if you must...or the Great Chicago Fire...but not the tsunami.
Rae
Of course...on the other hand...you know it's bad in the Big Easy when you have this report...
"Officials said a 3-foot (0.9-meter) shark had been spotted cruising the flooded streets."