Adventures in Space

The music on the loudspeakers brought to mind Star Wars, E.T., and music of space dramas through out the history of soundtracks. We headed towards the Rocket Garden. I wanted to ride the bus out to the Apollo exhibit. He wanted to view "Heroes and Legends", an exhibit added since our last visit.

Have you been to Kennedy Space Center? To me, it has all the enchantment of any amusement park anywhere.  It has excitement and glamour and sparkly things and it is all true.

The bus ride traveled around Merritt Island, home to NASA, and to seas turtles, cranes, alligators and eagles. We circumnavigated the VAB, Vehicle Assembly Building, and stopped by one of the enormous launch tractors that painstakingly and more-slowly-than-sloths-or-turtles move vehicles to their launch positions.

We passed the SpaceX building leased by Elon Musk for his rocket projects. We drove by Launch Pad 39B , now in use by Musk's team. Our guide pointed out the zip lines attached to the launch tower to help the crew escape in an emergency. I wonder if that would even work.

We even drove past Launch Command Center before landing at the Apollo/Saturn hangar and exhibit that houses as manyrockets as they could cram into the building. I saw the actual firing room preserved as it was during Apollo 8's historic launch - and so much more. After my visit, I hopped back on the shuttle that returned me to the Space Center and I sat across from the Rocket Garden in the sun with my husband and wondered at humanity's obsession with space. Lucky for us, a guide gave a walking tour of the Rocket Garden which was broadcast over the square.

We have lived through fascinating, exciting times.

The books I read on this vacation connected so strongly with the Spce Center that it felt cosmically ordained.

This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews   A group of friends chase the paper lanterns set loose in the river to find out where they really go. The traditional song claims that the lanterns rise into the sky to join the stars. Um, really? Ben and his friends make a pact. They will never look back; they will not turn home. Behind them on his father's too-big bike rides Nathan, the class weirdo and a boy that Ben has known his whole life to Ben's ever growing embarrassment.

One by one (or two) the other boys fall away, for Taco night, or because they are tired, or because they don't want to get in trouble, until it is only Ben and Nathan on this trip.  Ben resents Nathan's presence but he shrugs and on they go. After all, Nathan has his Mom's rice krispie treats. Nathan repeats the pact that he heard the boys make and wonders if he should have said goodbye for good to his parents before he left home. Literal, an encyclopedia on legs, cheerful and undaunted - that's Nathan.

Off into the night they ride, into a fog that steers them awry, where they meet magical characters, all of whom are chasing bright mystical beings on this autumn night.

I kept thinking of the best anime I've seen as I read this graphic novel. The artwork moves from predictable to energized to manic and finally to ahh! inspiring.

When I finish this post, I will hunt the book down to purchase. The copy I read is due back at the Bethlehem Public Library.

Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos    Nova is beyond excited about the space shuttle Challenger's 10th launch. She and her older sister have used space travel as a way to escape their worries even back when they lived with their widowed troubled Mom, and through all the foster homes in between. Nova is with a new family. Bridget has promised her that no matter where she is Bridget will reach Nova in time for the launch.

Nova does not speak. Noises and new situations make her frantic. She shrieks and flaps and twirls and without Bridget, she has no one who can understand what she needs or what she is going through.

As she adjusts to a new family, and a new school, Nova writes to Bridget every night in a notebook Bridget gave her for the express purpose. Bridget is the only person who can read what Nova writes.

This book brought tears to my eyes as Nova describes what people say about her, thinking that she doesn't understand, as she tells how she has been misunderstood and treated by adults who thought they were doing what was best.

Her new foster family brought tears to my eyes because they made no assumptions about Nova's abilities. They looked beyond her oddities and saw her the way that Bridget saw her.

The soundtrack that helped Nova deal with overwhelming stress was Davie Bowie's Space Oddity and that song always brings tears to my eyes.

I think I don't need to go on. We all know what happened when the Challenger's 10th mission was launched - the one with school teacher, Christa McAuliffe, on board. The disaster frees memories that Nova has suppressed.

Tears.

Real life adventures, fictional stories, the same stars and universe - we share it all.