RJ Writing Ink

Why #LaunchAmerica is Important to the USA as a culture

If feels like the year 2020 has been nothing but doom and gloom. We’ve got a global pandemic with COVID-19 that’s ground most of the world to a halt. The Summer Olympics have been postponed to next year. There are murder hornets straight out of hell invading the Pacific Northwest! Last but not least, we have the protests in US cities because of the death of George Floyd because of a man who gives Cops a bad name. In other words, what this year needs is something positive. Yesterday, we got that!

I tuned in on YouTube and on my TV as millions of people watched live as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched at Cape Canaveral, bound for the International Space Station. It’s the first time since 2011 that Americans have launched from our own soil. And if all goes well, it’s the first step to returning to the Moon by the middle of this decade.

Now, some may think “Why should we care when there’s so much awful stuff going on in the world?” The answer’s the same as it was in the 60s with NASA: because this gives us hope.

I could go into a lengthy speech about why it gives us hope, but I’d rather keep this simple. Us landing on the Moon was one of, if not the biggest, achievement in human history. It united us in a way that few things have ever united humanity. And heaven knows that we need that kind of unity now more than ever.

In short, I hope that yesterday is the start of a new age of exploration as we begin to truly set foot in the cosmos.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had one dream that will refuse to die, no matter how impossible it may be. And that dream is being able to go to space one day. However, I couldn’t find the drive to learn the science, and I had no patience for math. As a result, it looked my dream wouldn’t come true.

So, when private companies started forming to send people to space, I thought that this could eventually lead to my dream coming true. That’s why today’s launch of SpaceX’s first manned mission meant so much to me.

I hurried home from work just so I could watch the historic #LaunchAmerica moment live. Only to be crushed when they scrubbed the flight 16 minutes before launch! SO CLOSE!

It’s been nine years since a spaceship launched from American soil. NASA and private businesses want to return to the Moon with this decade. Which is why this launch has to be perfect. I’m disappointed, but I don’t want an unnecessary tragedy to occur. So you can bet I’ll be watching again this Saturday.