Two milestones have passed in the last week that cause us to look back a bit and see where we’ve come from.
The first passing was the terse note from James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation that News Of The World would cease publication on Sunday, forever. It would seem that NOTW’s fascination with hacking into the voicemail of victims, families and celebs along with some serious corruption charges are going to stop the presses for good. To say that News Of The World was the singularly most tawdry UK Sunday paper in existence would be perfectly accurate and perhaps even a moderate understatement. However, the line was crossed when it was revealed NOTW was involved in hacking into the voicemail of murdered British teen Milly Dowler to see what kind of dirt could be dug up. Even the families of British soldiers killed in action have had their mobile phones hacked, purportedly to garner headlines like “Dead Vet’s Nanny Buys Undies Online From Same Store As Posh Spice”
Being in the same store where NOTW is on sale makes you feel like you need a half-hour shower afterwards. Not even the National Enquirer makes you feel that soiled and News Corporation has done the right thing by closing the paper for good.
The Space Shuttle on the other hand was almost always a feel-good story, with a couple of notable exceptions. Designed in the early 70’s, the Shuttle was the reusable delivery van of the new frontier of space exploration. The last flight is under way with Atlantis dropping off a years’ worth of groceries at the International Space Station as STS-135. Of course the Shuttle has been overhauled and updated a few times in the past thirty four years. Now NASA is going to have to bum rides with the Russians to get to the ISS. There is no replacement for the Shuttle, except some pretty drawings and PowerPoint presentations that would make a stone statue yawn.
Perhaps that is the sadder passing of the two. The end of the Shuttle and no obvious inheritor means we’ve given up. The various surviving Shuttles will become gate queens stuck on pylons until they rot away.
In thirty years expect a two line story on your smartphone implant that some old geezers are trying to raise a few million Yuan to restore the rusted out remains of the last surviving Shuttle from a defunct outdoor water park in Toledo, Ohio. The geezers want to remind us of the days when humans did really cool, heroic things. Back when we could tackle any problem and solve it with a combination of education, determination and genuine effort.
Back when we were Good. Damn Good.
RoadDave 
Murdoch’s getting what he deserves. He bought out the Chicago Sun-Times, one of my hometown’s 2 papers, and dragged it down to a level barely above the National Enquirer. Things may have gotten better in the 10 years of my exile from Chicago, but based on the website, I severely doubt it. Mind you, someone anonymously registered the website name for the The Sun on Sunday, the one day of the week the Sun doesn’t run – and both the Sun and NotW are owned by Murdoch. Any guesses what’s next?
The story of the shuttle, soon to pass into history, is a sad and frustrating one. Firstly, the ships were built for 100 flights, yet the most traveled has barely passed 50. And the Soyuz, upon which we will be “hitching rides” at $33 million per seat per flight, is equally old, if not older. In other words, would you rather drive your 30+ year old Chevy, or hitch a ride in someone else’s well-over 30+ year old Lada? There is no realistic replacement, NASA is fumbling over how to proceed, and both parties in Congress are trying to figure out how to chop NASA’s budget even further. Throw in the economic catastrophe hitting the area around Cape Canaveral, and you have a national embarrassment orders of magnitude greater than the infamous “Desert One” bungle in 1980.
America, and the world, would benefit hugely from some project on the scale of that mentioned in JFK’s speech in 1960 – not just jingoistic pride, but materially, in technology and goods that would pay dividends for decades. Unfortunately, we lack the leadership in this country, and in many of our should-be allies, to pull this off in the near future.
To Murdoch and the NotW – good riddance.
To shuttle Atlantis, and all her sisters both here and gone – good luck, well done, and stand easy. You will be sorely missed.