The Apollo 13 mission was a demonstration of what happens when you plan and prepare for the worst. It was NASA’s finest hour back then. Hard to believe it happened when the GOP was in the White House since we lost two shuttles under their negligence. Ergo, we shouldn’t be shocked that America’s worst pandemic in a century is also during their watch…again.
Twenty-five years ago, it was a really excellent movie solidifying Tom Hanks’ career as a solid bankable movie star. Hard to believe he started out in a failed SitCom. The funniest thing which happened after seeing the film was a Japanese friend asking, “That really happened?” Her comment wasn’t too surprising though. I didn’t know about NASA’s near miss until 1981 while watching ABC’s filler material before the Columbia launch, starting America’s shuttle period. Our collective memory over the space program truncated so rapidly in the Seventies, it was pathetic.
I do hope my home country gets a more consistent strategy with human space exploration because after the moon landing, we’ve seriously declined and private enterprise isn’t going to fill the gap without sacrificing safety and lives to save money.