Saturn V Launch

[Logan Darklighter]

A fun little bit from Duane Elms:
"We're Going Back".
It was late in Sixty-nine,
When we landed that first time.
Man, I still remember how it felt to see it.
And it wasn't that long then,
We were on the moon again,
And you could feel yourself beginning to believe it.
Then once more and then again
We pushed out the reach of man.
Each time up another set of hero's footprints.
But those short trips were all we made,
Somehow our dream it got waylaid,
And not a person, live or dead has been up there since.
And what was so hard won has been abandoned.
Our journey to the stars got off the track,
But we'll return some day to claim
What we once won as our domain,
We're goin' back, I swear to God, we're goin' back!

One small step was all we took;
Just enough to have a look,
A beginning, just a glimmer of man's powers,
But our first step on that road
Has been our last and it has showed
That we are governed by the weak kneed and the cowards.
Nothing much up there they say
Don't know how we'll make it pay.
We could use that dough to help us stay elected.
But as the billions waste away
We all come nearer to the day
When there won't be enough resources to correct it.
We must get us off this fragile little planet.
Before we blow ourselves to hell and back.
We're gonna make it plain,
We'll no more play this waiting game,
We're goin' back, I swear to God we're goin' back!
Instrumental:
Well, we're still not out in space,
And the whole damn human race,
Sits and dawdles with our eggs all in one basket.
We've already bought the tools,
How long will we stay Earthbound fools?
That is the question and I think it's time we ask it.
Yes we still haven't lost that sense of wonder.
This won't become a human cul-de-sac.
We will see that nothing mars
Our rightful place among the stars,
We're goin' back, I swear to God we're goin' back!
For this adventure never will be finished.
We'll make up for the spine the others lack.
Take it money, lives, or pain,
What we once lost we will regain,
We're goin' back, I swear to God we're goin' back!

[classicdrogn]

Sigh, if only it were true... There's another space travel song I've been trying to rmeember anything searchable from, and I finally did: Spacegrass by Clutch. It's exceptionally heavy heavy metal, and the repeated mention of 'Jesus on the dashboard' might make Doug shy away from it, but it sems logical as a 'conjure space-car' song if it worked at all. I know it grab's *my* imagination as a song for high speed, but I freely admit to being a bit odd.

- CD
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Bob Schroeck]

More songs to get when I get home tonight! Cool!
You know, writing this story has been the best thing that's ever happened to my MP3/CD/tape collection.


-- Bob
---------
There's no wrong way to eat a Rhesus.

[Koryimran]

I feel the same way Bob. Execpt that while reading these stories have done wonders for my music collection my wallet doesn't like it too much.

Shawn Earl
(looking for songs at the moment)

[ordnance11]

How about "Rocket Man" by Elton John?
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[cpt kangarooski]

But probably not David Bowie's "Space Oddity"
This is Ground Control to Major Tom, you've really made the grade and the papers want to know whose shirts you wear. Over.

[ordnance11]

I found the lyrics to the them from Star Trek. Rodenbuerry wrote them but they were never used
Beyond the rim of the starlight,
My love is wandering in star flight.
I know hell find in star clustered reaches
Love, strange love a starwoman teaches.
I know his journey ends never.
His Star Trek will go on forever.
But tell him while he wanders his starry sea,
Remember, Remember me.
home.att.net/~tvthemelyri...r-trek.htm
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Logan Darklighter]

The Green Hills of Earth
Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me
As they rove around the girth
Of our lovely mother planet
Of the cool, green hills of Earth.

We rot in the moulds of Venus,
We retch at her tainted breath.
Foul are her flooded jungles,
Crawling with unclean death.

[ --- the harsh bright soil of Luna ---
--- Saturn's rainbow rings ---
--- the frozen night of Titan --- ]

We've tried each spinning space mote
And reckoned its true worth:
Take us back again to the homes of men
On the cool, green hills of Earth.

The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
ALL HANDS! STAND BY! FREE FALLING!
And the lights below us fade.

Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the friendly skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.

Robert A. Heinlein

[Logan Darklighter]

I've heard the Old Ones tell of how it once was.
I've heard the tales their fathers heard from fathers long before,
Of times when man reached out his hand and almost touched the stars,
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
The tales of giant sky ships in the Southlands,
Of thunder rolling down the Cape, a mighty awesome roar,
Of men who tried and men who died and men who turned away,
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
They tell of how we failed the final challenge,
And how we turned our backs on those with courage to explore.
Expedience became the shameful legacy of man,
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
For man it seems is past his final glory,
And Earth will be his resting place for now and ever more.
We know that Man can never be more than he is right now,
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
Sometimes I wish I could go back and tell them,
To pay the price; that man should not be stranded on this shore;
The future's for the taking; god! don't fail your children now.
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
I watch the moon come up across the tree tops.
I hear the gentle closing of a door,
Much like the chance to touch the stars we lost so long ago,
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
No I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
"Too Late", Lyrics and Music by Duane Elms

[Valles]

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care - I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out into the black
Hell no, I ain't comin' back
Burn the land 'n boil the sea
But you can't take the sky from me
{bridge}
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me
Joss Whedon & Sonny Rhodes - Ballad of Serenity
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Bob Schroeck]

Hell, I could use that last one in the Sailor Moon step.


-- Bob
---------
There's no wrong way to eat a Rhesus.

[Valles]

---

Hell, I could use that last one in the Sailor Moon step.

---

Mp3 available here.
Blessed be.
-n
(Hey, Bob? How's this Sunday sound?)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Mp3 available here.

---

I'll check it out tonight when I get home, after I paint the closet...

---

(Hey, Bob? How's this Sunday sound?)

---

For a get-together? I think it's workable -- I have to check with Peg, of course, and I hope you don't mind the detritus of several home projects (like the aforementioned closet) scattered around the place...


-- Bob
---------
There's no wrong way to eat a Rhesus.

[Valles]

---

For a get-together? I think it's workable -- I have to check with Peg, of course, and I hope you don't mind the detritus of several home projects (like the aforementioned closet) scattered around the place...

---

I have to clean off my bed to sleep. 'Clear space' is what happens when the base layer of the kipple is a notebook or something else flat enough to set stuff on.
I think I'll survive.
Blessed be.
-n
(Lessee, bring Firefly, return Kare Kano fansubs, Carter&Grammar CDs...)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Bob Schroeck]

Peggy seems not opposed. We'll talk phone or email later.


-- Bob
---------
There's no wrong way to eat a Rhesus.

[Proginoskes]

Filksinger Steve Savitzky seems to focus mostly on two topics: computers, and space.
"Keep the Dream Alive" Ogg Vorbis MP3

In the year of Nineteen Eighty Six,
On an icy winter's day
The shuttle Challenger left the pad
And started on her way
The shuttle Challenger lifted off
With seven brave women and men
In flames they died just ten miles high,
And never came home again.

Never came home again,
In flames they died just ten miles high
And never came home again.

And seventeen years later
Nearly forty miles high,
Columbia's wreckage wrote a line
Of fire across the sky
But long before the jetstream blew
Her trail of smoke away
We saw that it marked a highway
We would travel again some day.


--2003--02--01


So never say that they died in vain
Nor stay on the ground afraid,
The stars are one step closer now
Because of the price we've paid.
And mourn for the shuttles that fly no more,
And weep for the friends we've lost,
But to leave the Earth will still be worth
Whatever it has to cost.

And fire no guns in last salute
But let the rockets roar,
And reach for the wide and starry sky
As Challenger did before.
And raise no earthbound slab of stone,
To mark the place they lie,
But write their names with a shuttle's flames,
Ten miles in the sky.

And here's a toast to the shuttle crews
Who died for the dream of space
And all the pioneers who have
The sky for a resting place.
No grave nor tombstone do they need,
For their memory will survive
As long as we fly beyond the sky
And keep the dream alive.

Keep the dream alive,
As long as we fly beyond the sky
And keep the dream alive.

Keep the dream alive,
Let the shuttles fly beyond the sky
And keep the dream alive.

[ECSNorway]

A few more on this theme.

Echo's Children, Columbia:

She was first among our shuttles, and we watched her from afar:

Liftoff's soaring angel-plume, re-entry's falling star.

She carried hope and knowledge on that flying fortnight run

Crewed by warriors and healers, and sometimes both in one.

Sixteen minutes out from home she faltered in her flight,

Lost communication, and broke up in beads of light

And my heart is soaked in sorrow as it slowly understands

That Columbia, sky-strider, is fallen... with all hands.

As a people and a nation we have paid a price to learn

That in any exploration, there are some who don't return.

We are neither fools nor cowards, to be shaken now to know

What our founders could have told us, twice a hundred years ago.

Pictures stark before us, spelled out the flyers' fates.

A hundred miles of wreckage lay strewn across two states:

Scraps of twisted metal, a helmet grey with char,

Across the fields of mem'ry, a black and smoking scar.

Across a waking nation the shock and sorrow ran

From sunny Amarillo to the forests of Spokane.

From India to Israel the mourners claim their own;

A nation grieves its heroes, but we do not grieve alone.

Columbia is fallen, yet her journey isn't done;

The secrets of the universe are dear--and dearly won.

In every generation we find some dreamers rise

And set their lives at hazard to give us all the skies.

Leslie Fish, Witnesses' Waltz

Chorus:

Twelve thousand, half-million, million and more

Picnicking out on the warm-water shore.

Nobody notes that we're always at hand

To watch all the space-ships that take off and land.

Come along Harry and Mary and Joe.

Pack up some lunches, and everyone go.

Fill up the camper, drive down to White Sands,

And we'll pour the champagne when the Space Shuttle lands.

It's the loveliest show on this Earth that you'll see;

It's living and real, not just tape-on-TV.

So come to Canaveral, and bring lots of beer.

When the space-ship takes off we'll all stand up and cheer.

Politicians ignore us, the media too;

But if they don't notice, the ships always do.

See her landing so lightly, you'd swear that she cares

That she flies on two wings and a good million prayers.

So come let's go witness the takeoff today

While the world's biggest beach-party cheers her away.

We'll bang the drums proudly and blow on the conch.

Leave a sign on your door that just says "Out to Launch."

And of course Leslie Fish again, Hope Eyrie

Worlds grow old and suns grow cold

And death we never can doubt.

Time's cold wind, wailing down the past,

Reminds us that all flesh is grass

And history's lamps blow out.

But the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.

Time won't drive us down to dust again.

Cycles turn while the far stars burn,

And people and planets age.

Life's crown passes to younger lands,

Time brushes dust of hope from his hands

And turns another page.

But the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.

Time won't drive us down to dust again.

But we who feel the weight of the wheel

When winter falls over our world

Can hope for tomorrow and raise our eyes

To a silver moon in the opened skies

And a single flag unfurled.

But the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.

Time won't drive us down to dust again.

We know well what Life can tell:

If you would not perish, then grow.

And today our fragile flesh and steel

Have laid our hands on a vaster wheel

With all of the stars to know

That the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.

Time won't drive us down to dust again.

From all who tried out of history's tide,

Salute for the team that won.

And the old Earth smiles at her children's reach,

The wave that carried us up the beach

To reach for the shining sun.

For the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.

Time won't drive us down to dust again.

Dr. Jordin Kare, Fire in the Sky

Prometheus they say brought gods fire down to man

And we’ve caught it, tamed it, trained it since our history began

Now we’re going back to Heaven just to look Him in the eye

And there’s a thunder ‘cross the land and a fire in the sky

Gragarin was the first back in 1961

When, like Icarus, undaunted he climbed to reach the sun

And he knew he might not make it, for it’s never hard to die

But he lifted off the pad and rode a fire in the sky

Yet a higher goal was calling and we vowed we’d reach it soon

And we gave ourselves a decade to put fire on the moon

And Apollo told the world we can do it if we try

For there was one small step and a fire in the sky

Then two decades from Gragarin, twenty years to the day

Came a shuttle named Columbia to open up the way

And they said she’s just a truck, but she’s a truck that’s aimin’ high

See her big jets burnin’. See her fire in the sky

Yet the gods do not give lightly of the powers they have made

And with Challenger and seven, once again the price is paid

Though our nation watched her falling, yet a world could only cry

As they passed from us to glory, riding fire in the sky

Now the rest is up to us. There’s a future to be won

We must turn our faces outward. We will do what must be done

For no cradle lasts forever, every bird must learn to fly

And we’re goin’ to the stars. See our fire in the sky

Yes, we’re going to the stars. See our fire in the sky

http://www.prometheus-music.com/space.html
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Bob Schroeck]

All good and fine songs. As my use of Hope Eyrie in a Fenspace story will attest.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.