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352. 48 years ago

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Those were the days of our glory. By us I mean all intelligent people, all passionate, sensible people, all people who are able to discriminate objective reality from the bare wishful thinking. And, of course, people who are able to distort objective reality to match their wishful thinking.

But those days have passed. In reality, nothing really went wrong, we did what we could. It was the very objective reality who was saying since 1961 “no”, “no” and “No” to our space program. Space did not make us rich. Space did not open those multiple possibilities for us which, as seemed, were so promising. The most successful space missions that took place since 1961 were and are unmanned missions. As my favorite writer, Sir Arthur Clarke, said in “Childhood’s end”, the stars are not for Man.

But you know… I think that our very failure just signals the end of our childhood. I think we will return to space, maybe not as Men, but we eventually will.

I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in human spirit, human knowledge, human curiosity, human race. Either we or our children will reshape this Reality itself, the Reality that did not open the doors of Space for us.

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2 Comments »

Comment by Lubos Motl
2009-04-12 19:44:10

Czechoslovakia was the first country Gagarin visited after he returned from the space, and we appreciated it. If you don’t know the official Czechoslovak song celebrating Gagarin, try

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mL7nu5EIUk

Nice jazz, kind of surprising for those old times. A translation of the lyrics to English:

http://motls.blogspot.com/2007.....s-ago.html

The modern 2007 variation celebrating the U.S. missile defense system on the Czech territory, including video (parody by the foes of the project) plus my translation of lyrics to English:

http://motls.blogspot.com/2007.....adars.html

 
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