We are called to open up the heavens

HoustonChronicle.com ^ | 2/7/03 | MARK R. WHITTINGTON

[Brett66]

Ping.

[new cruelty]

onward and upward...

[discostu]

We've got to keep pushing because there's only one way to develop the technology and that's to use it.

[NEWwoman]

Right on.
Here is a link to one of my favorite articles concerning that:

http://www.spacepolicy.org/page_hh0699.html

It was written by Homer Hickam, of "October Sky."

[ChemistCat]

Bless you for pinging me and I agree wholeheartedly with every word.

SPACE PLANE!

I really thought that I'd be able to live on the moon before old age caught up with me with its gravity-exacerbated aches and pains. What's wrong with us? What are we waiting for? What's wrong with the ecofreaks that they aren't pushing to get dirty industry off the planet where it belongs?

[RightWhale]

Armadillo Aerospace and XCOR have been quietly and diligently working

While we're quietly working on space access, what about what happens once we get into space? I've seen two business plans. Asteroid mining and space tourism. The rest is all that L-5 hokum and balogney. But, I believe the time is past. We had the chance and now we don't. Like whoever built the pyramids all over the planet, we are done and outta here.

[MeekOneGOP]

Rest in peace, shuttle heroes...

[MeekOneGOP]

http://www.wfaa.com/watchvideo/index.jsp?SID=3683978
Requires RealPlayer

Amateur tape shows what appears to be an object
breaking off Columbia over Arizona.

Video shows shuttle may have shed debris over Arizona -
check out this video taken by amateurs

Video link: Shuttle over D/FW, Texas

Very close-up, slo-mo of the Columbia launch debris

ROBERT McCULLOUGH / © 2003, DMN
Space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it hurtled
across North Texas shortly before 8 a.m. Saturday.
The image was taken in Flower Mound.

[discostu]

That underscores another part of the problem: satisfaction. Once we got the shuttle going almost everybody decided that was good enough, progress by and large halted and what little new tech development there has been is all on the sides and poorly funded. You don't push a technology forward if you decide what you have is perfect. Our space agency basically decided the Model T did everything they needed as well as they needed it done. You don't get Corvette's if people don't drive the Model T; but you also don't get Corvette's if nobody decides the Model T is too slow, loud and uncomfortable. Almost a quarter century after the shuttle came out of development and became a live system nobody has said "we should have a fully re-usable system that doesn't need boosters" (if the current theory is true those boosters caused both of the shuttles' only catostrophic failures in 25 years), satisfaction might be good song but it's a lousy way to develop technology.

[NEWwoman]

Good points. It also complements the old saying - "Necessity is the Mother of Invention."

[dark_lord]

It is interesting to speculate whether the effect of the home PC, the Web, RPGs, and multi-hundred cable/satellite TV have diverted enough people who would otherwise be interested our going into space to...not really caring that much.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Columbia: Sign in the Heavens

The imagery of the stars of heaven falling to earth (whole house of Israel, as represented by the two sticks of America and Israel) is a sign of the coming of Messiah.

Numbers 24:17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre [shevet, Shevat*] shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

* February 1, 2003 = 29 Shevat 5763

The Pleiades [Kimah] were turned into doves...

Six Stars, Seven Sisters

>>>Their names are Maia, Electra, Alcyone, Taygete, Asterope, Celaeno and Merope. They are the seven sisters. They are the Pleiades. Their mother is Pleione, the Oceanid. Their father is Atlas, one of the twelve Titans, supporting the world at arms length. That's according to the Greek Mythology, of course! But one day, a long time ago, it is said that the Pleiades were travelling with their mother when they met Orion, the mighty hunter. Orion immediately fell in love with the beautiful women and started chasing them. The chase lasted for several years until Zeus, the king of Heaven and Earth and of all the Olympian Gods, helped them escape by changing them into doves. The doves flew into the sky and became the stellar cluster we see today, the Pleiades, still beautiful at 20 million years old, laced with ice-blue glowing interstellar dust.<<<

http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/Media/NHN/pleiades.html

The Constellation Columba (from which the shuttle Columbia was named) was originally part of Canis Major, the dog which is at the heels of the mighty hunter [Esav].

About Columba

>>>Columbia, Noah's dove, was first formally published in 1679 by Royer. It appeared some 76 years earlier in Bayer's plate of Canis Major and in his text as recentioribus Columba. However, Columba did not appear in works by Bartsch, Brahe, Hevelius or even Flamsteed. The constellation refers to the dove released several times during the voyage after the great flood to find land; it was this dove that returned with an olive branch in its beak, indicating dry land had been found.

http://www.botproductions.com/stellar/columba.html

>>>And then there is the mystery which has puzzled humanity as long as mankind has gazed at the stars above. The mystery is why the KIMAH is called the Constellation of Seven Sisters, when only six stars are visible with the naked eye? Is it possible that one of the stars was a doubled star? Or, was it possible that before the flood, the constellation's six stars formed a seventh, the Cocav David or Star of David? If this Cocav David will again appear in the pre-dawn sky, what does it mean?...<<<

http://home.pe.net/~mjagee/procon653.html

This makes sense, if the seven stars ARE six plus a seventh - a star of David - and the Kimah were changed into doves, i.e. the seven stars of the constellation Columba ("dove"), represented by the Columbia astronauts.

Ilan Ramon = 387 = "the seventh" = 43 x 9

>>>The constellation Columba (the dove) was chosen to symbolize peace on Earth and the Space Shuttle Columbia. The seven stars also represent the mission crew members and honor the original astronauts who paved the way to make research in space possible.<<<

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-107/html/sts107-s-001.html

More pictures of six stars plus the Star of David here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834511/posts

If this Cocav David will again appear in the pre-dawn sky, what does it mean?

Amateur tape shows what appears to be an object
breaking off Columbia over Arizona.

It means the rebirth of Israel, the Messianic age, and the symbols which Ilan Ramon took into the heavens represent everything he had hoped they would in a way he could not even imagine. Tu B'Shevat = the new year and planting of trees... Ilan ["tree"]! Tu B'Shevat spells tov shevet = shevet tov...

Psalms 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod [shevet, 7626] and thy staff they comfort me.

07626 shebet {shay'-bet}
from an unused root probably meaning to branch off; TWOT - 2314a; n m
AV - tribe 140, rod 34, sceptre 10, staff 2, misc 4; 190

1) rod, staff, branch, offshoot, club, sceptre, tribe
1a) rod, staff
1b) shaft (of spear, dart)
1c) club (of shepherd's implement)
1d) truncheon, sceptre (mark of authority)
1e) clan, tribe

7627
Sebat = "a rod"
1) 11th month in the post-exilic Jewish calendar corresponding to Jan or Feb

[anymouse]

My friend designed the STS-107 patch. I'll have to get him to sign on to FR to comment on why he used that particular constellation. He is pilot and historian. Haven't seen him since the crash, but since he works closely with the astronauts, I'm sure he is very busy - and sad.

[jimkress]

Let the genius of the private sector finally be brought to bear, to develop new and creative means of space travel. Thus, the cost of space travel can finally be brought down and its reliability enhanced.

BUMP!

[Thinkin' Gal]

My friend designed the STS-107 patch. I'll have to get him to sign on to FR to comment on why he used that particular constellation. He is pilot and historian. Haven't seen him since the crash, but since he works closely with the astronauts, I'm sure he is very busy - and sad.

Wow, that's amazing. The shuttle is the same name as the constellation, but what I have been very curious about, is why the Star of David is identified with kappa Columba. Considering the amount of symbolism which goes into these designs, I am wondering what the reason is behind the choice of that particular star.

Also, the [shuttle] shape of the patch and the elongated astronaut symbol (with the star on the top) are similar to that of a tree reaching unto the heavens. Was that on purpose, because the name Ilan means "tree"? (Please read about the tree in Daniel 4, the only use of ilan in the Hebrew Bible.)

Thank you in advance, if you can get these answers (and anything else not mentioned on the NASA STS-107 page) from your friend!

[Alouette]

[The_Victor]

Thanks for the ping.

< /tears> < shoulder-to-the-wheel>

[MeekOneGOP]

Wow. Thanks...

[anymouse]

Knowing my friend, he put a lot of thought into the patch design and you are correct in that the symbolism is deliberate. I wished the last time I saw him and he gave me two of the decals, that I had asked him more about the sybolism. I'll try to get him to at least lurk on FR to see that people appreciate his artistic work.