10.18.2007
Scientists, engineers, explorers, Langley and Yeager
It's nice to see the House of Representatives taking a moment this week to honor the 50th anniversary of the space age with H.Con.Res. 225. This somehow simultaneously commemorative and forward-thinking resolution, inter alia, “declares it to be in America’s interest to continue to advance knowledge and improve life on Earth through a sustained national commitment to space exploration in all its forms, led by a new generation of well educated scientists, engineers, and explorers.” (My italics.)Ah. As opposed to uneducated scientists, engineers, and explorers, then?
And what's this? No mention of lawyers? Well never mind. Thank you, House.
On a related note, the thoughtful lawmakers also passed H.Con.Res. 222, a resolution honoring NASA’s Langley Research Center on its 90th anniversary. And I want to second that with a wow. Ninety! Isn't that like impossibly old in space years? (More somberly, Jeff Foust reports the 421-0 roll call vote "was a bittersweet moment: the resolution has been introduced by the late Rep. Jo Ann Davis [R-VA] less than a week before her death." Our condolences to the Congresswoman's family and constituents.)
By the way, not just for those surprised to learn NASA's Langley is 40 years older than the space age itself (remember, in 1917 the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NASA's predecessor, established the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Virginia, now the NASA Langley Research Center), the space agency is hosting an open house Saturday, October 27, 2007 at LaRC in Hampton, Virginia to celebrate the field center's big nine oh.
And there's more. While it was pondering aerospace milestones, the House with its head still in the clouds also passed H.Res. 736, which honors "the 60th anniversary of the aeronautics research accomplishments embodied in 'the breaking of the sound barrier'." ("Whereas on the morning of October 14, 1947, an X-1 aircraft piloted by Captain Charles 'Chuck' Yeager was dropped from a B-29 carrier aircraft and 'broke the sound barrier' and achieved supersonic flight for the first time in history...")
All great. And much more to come.
Happy resolutions.
*****
Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.
--Chuck Yeager (not his lawyer)
