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High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

I was never a big fan of the Shuttle. It certainly had it's uses such as a means to lift heavy objects into orbit, but in the thirty years of flying it, and spending enormous amounts of money on it, the shuttle NEVER WENT ANYWHERE!

How we as a nation, who made HUGE strides in technology from Mercury to Apollo, who explored the moon and took tremendous risks and sacrifice to do so, ended up flying round and round the same planet for 3 decades is beyond me.

We, as a nation, have lost our pioneering spirit and I for one wish we could get it back. Of course, we spent every last dime we had plus everyone elses so that won't happen anytime soon.