I have very dim memories of the Apollo program, but the image that really sticks with me is of the engineers\/technicians that manned positions in Mission Control. This poem is the result of contrasting my impression from 50 years ago with my impression while watching the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch last year.<\/p>\n
The dawn of monster rockets
\nAll steel plates, bolts, and wings
\nPatches and rivets and ridges
\nThunder, ice, paint, and flame
\nShaken off a Frankenstein’s
\nMonster that unfolds itself slow
\nSo slow and stretches–rumble
\nAnd shake–before inching into
\nthe sky.<\/p>\n
Nerdy fellows bathed in pale light
\nHundreds of flickering CRTs
\nTracking every pop, crackle, boom
\nAnd groan–Orbit plotted
\nmile by straining downrange mile
\nAcross a pasteboard world of
\nBlinking lights with crackling static.<\/p>\n
Gives way to sleek and white
\nMadison Avenue logos
\nBranding and music and YouTube
\nA pinpoint, high definition ballet
\nOf missions countless
\nWhite gleaming rockets or
\nBurn-scarred, brawny cores
\nThat tank up, go again, and
\nThen dance down to repeat
\nforever.<\/p>\n
The engineers calmly track the
\nhundred LCDs, graphics and
\nvoice-overs–“Falcon 9 is go
\nfor flight”–hugs and cheers
\nApplause signs and high-def
\nA tight shot of the smooth skinned
\nMissile…youthful ascent.<\/p>\n
© 2019 William Herndon, All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have very dim memories of the Apollo program, but the image that really sticks with me is of the engineers\/technicians that manned positions in Mission Control. This poem is the result of contrasting my impression from 50 years ago with my impression while watching the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch last year. Then and Now The dawn of monster rockets All steel plates, bolts, and wings Patches and rivets and ridges Thunder, ice, paint, and flame Shaken off a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[48,41,49],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-verse","tag-apollo","tag-poetry","tag-spacex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherndon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}