The news today has included footage of the space shuttle Endeavour being flown to Los Angeles on the back of a 747 to be placed in a science museum. They made a big deal of flying it past local landmarks, and crowds turned out to see it go overhead.
Does this strike anyone else as odd? The Americans are backing out of space exploration meekly and awkwardly, yet they're taking a victory lap? And people are cheering it? Did any other declining empires do this? ("Wait, don't disband the Roman Army yet; first, let's have a parade!") The fact that one of its last photo-ops had the Hollywood sign as its backdrop was just painfully fitting.
No comments:
Post a Comment