Our View: One small step
NASA’s next launch is yet another small step in space exploration. But the rocket launches our memories back in time.
Limestone County’s ties to space run deep. Many who live here work in the Rocket City area. And the Saturn 1B rocket welcomes people into Alabama along I-65 in Elkmont as they drive into Limestone County from Tennessee.
The rocket was put up in 1979 ten years after two Americans first set foot on the lunar surface.
Now, more than 50 years later, NASA’s Artemis 1 mission will send the Orion space craft to orbit the moon. Setting in motion plans for the Artemis 3 mission that will send humans to the moon once again if all goes according to plan in the first and second phases.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville has played a crucial role in developing technology that led to the Saturn rocket in the Apollo mission and now the Space Launch System for the Artemis mission. The joy of seeing such great feats of science, technology, engineering, and more come together, knowing the role that North Alabama has played in it, can not be under stated.
We should all be proud of those who had any part of working in the aerospace industry for getting us here. We should be proud of our predecessors who got us to this point and proud of our neighbors who make a difference in this mission.
What was once thought to be something that may only happen once in a lifetime now could be seen again for many. And it’s all because of many North Alabamians here.
Thank you for your small steps, so that we may see another giant leap.