Genuine wonderment

They're back. Four explorers safely returned to the Earth after a journey of three quarters of a million miles. Through a vacuum. The whole thing still blows me away, but also fills me with a sense of pride that is immeasurable, at a time when I really feel I needed it.
And if you get, you get it, and if you don't, you don't; and I decided a long time ago to stop trying to convert people or to dissuade them from their views. If you want to doubt the achievement, or call it a waste of money, or believe the many conspiracy theories, go ahead. I choose to revel in the incredible sense of wonder that I feel every time I see one of the images, or hear one of the astronauts voices as they explain the view from their window, or think about the thousands of people who dedicated years of their lives to the accomplishments of the past 10 days. It truly has been remarkable. And to be able to follow it so closely, and in such detail, has given me a sense of connectivity to something that I haven't felt in years. Maybe since the London Olympics. And that ability to follow it so closely is down to technology that only exists in the first place because of the human drive for discovery and exploration. What a wonderful loop of awe.
And the official NASA flickr page has more than 60,000 images to get through, so I'm going to make a start on them now. 60k+ images, all in the public domain, because everything in this is being shared with everyone, and that's the most amazing part of it all, I think.

I have to say, though, that the first person to speak at the official NASA post-splashdown press conference this morning (I think his name was Ahmit?) gave the least inspiring reading of an inspiring speech I've ever heard. Not a criticism - just a realisation that some people are better at expressing themselves vocally than others.

RC 11-4-26