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).
Please do pray for them, as pushing the envelope is always risky. They are a good crew, knew the odds, and cheerfully went forward knowing that what they were doing puts us back on course to the stars. They were and are willing to take the risks to push things forward. Let us pray they get back safe and help us continue to push the envelope. Our future is out there. Never forget: Earth is the cradle of humanity. Children can’t stay in the cradle forever. Time to get moving.
UPDATE I: They made it back safely, and I want to thank all who commented, and special thanks to all those who prayed. I’ve not had time to individually comment on the comments given that the end of Holy Week is quite busy. Know your comments and prayers were and are appreciated. I’m looking forward to some of the post-flight reviews, particularly on the heat shield.
Was about to enter that verse.
I’m from the generation which knows who The Four are and can recognize if not hum The Ballad of Rodger Young”.
🙂 Excellent! Been a long time since I’ve done The Ballad, but think I could still hum it.
Lots of hits on youtube. From slow to march time. Various artists.
Was Inf 2lt summer of 70. Got through OCS. Tasked to orient our AIT trainees who were headed to Benning. Asked how many had read Starship Troopers. More than half.
I don’t know if Heinlein wrote that, but it scans as a verse to the Navy Hymn (Eternal Father strong to save) which he would have heard weekly at chapel services while at USNA
The original British “Navy hymn” can be found in many places:
https://hymnary.org/text/eternal_father_strong_to_save_whose_arm#media.
It is #608 in _The Hymnal 1982_, the official hymn book of the Episcopal Church. A version with words covering land, sea, and air is #579 in the same book. That version, with the last line of the third verse changed from “care … air” to “grace … space”, was sung at NASA’s memorial service for the seven Challenger astronauts, and likely at other such events.
I’ve never seen or heard the verse above, but I think I prefer it, whether RAH actually wrote it or not. I’d like to think he did.
If you haven’t listened to this to the end yet, I apologize in advance for making you cry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv4bK3mZoII
Let me rest my eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool green hills of Earth.
Amen.
Brave men who step into that small spot above a burning roman candle and venture skyward.
There are things that will never be safe. They may become routine, and even routinely safe. But they will never be something done without risk. Space travel is one of them.
I watched the launch and should probably watch the return if that’s possible. Because one of my earliest clear, distinct memories is of waking up and going out to the living room to find Dad sitting on the couch watching tv. He was watching the last Apollo mission launch. So I sat down on the couch with him and watched it with him. So I have to watch as we finally come back around to actually stretching ourselves to go somewhere other than low Earth orbit.
God Bless, astronauts!
A safe return to inspire more to adventure in the vast unknown!
BTW, you can watch the return here, around 6:30PM Eastern:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfhDuOHMp0A
This is the story of Rhysling, the Blind Singer of the Spaceways — but not the official version. You sang his words in school:
“I pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave me birth;
Let me rest my eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.”
Or perhaps you sang in French, or German. Or it might have been Esperanto, while Terra’s rainbow banner rippled over your head.
The language does not matter — it was certainly an Earth tongue. No one has ever translated “Green Hills” into the lisping Venerian speech; no Martian ever croaked and whispered it in the dry corridors. This is ours. We of Earth have exported everything from Hollywood crawlies to synthetic radioactives, but this belongs solely to Terra, and to her sons and daughters wherever they may be.
-RAH, The Green Hills of Earth
I guess “Terra’s rainbow banner” didn’t age well, nor Esperanto, but overall pretty close to pure poetry.
Memories of the summer of 1969 and the moon landing on the day room TV.
Special permission for us plebes to watch.
I might add that all the landing occurred during the War in Vietnam.
We have always been able to walk and chew gum at the same time.