Amen.Over on X, the redoubtable Homer Hickam (Rocket Boys, other books and movies, and a heck of a nice guy I met a time or two when we both worked at NASA MSFC) has put out a request for prayer for the Artemis II crew.
“Just a perhaps unnecessary reminder: The Artemis II crew, as successful as their mission has been, is involved in a dangerous enterprise with a spacecraft that has a heat shield that showed some unfortunate characteristics on Artemis I. If you are prayerful at all, please pray for their safe return to the “fleecy skies and cool green hills of Earth.”
As I put it in a private group elsewhere, they are going to hit the Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 24,000 mph, encounter temps in excess of 3,000 degrees F, and other delights. I’m on record here and elsewhere as suggesting this flight should have been delayed because of problems, the least of which involve the heat shield. The heat shield on Artemis I did indeed display some “unfortunate characteristics” as Homer put it. I am praying and will continue to pray for them. Jon Stokes on X reminded me of this prayer, attributed to Robert A. Heinlein, which I will share:
Almighty ruler of the All,
Whose power extends to great and small,
Who guides the stars with steadfast law,
Whose least creation fills with awe-
Oh grant Thy mercy and Thy grace
To those who venture into space.
By the way, if you know where the quote in Homer’s post comes from, we are friends even if we have not yet met. (smile).
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