Starship Asterisk*

Sad that it was the last one for the fleet, but a very pretty launch all the same.

Are those giant "iPads" they are watching or monitors that rotate, partly off the side of the desk?

It's fun to analyze old SciFi to observe how close (and how far off) the author's guesses at future technology turned out to be.

For instance, 2001 involves bases on the moon. But then, it was written in the early 60's...look how far the space program had gone in 15 years (end of WWII to 1960)?

The book mentioned electronic newspapers and magazines; devices that could instantly access publications from around the globe. Floyd was reading from one on his trip to the moon. Not too far off the mark!

What struck me back then as implausible -- the two of them watching the same thing on two different screens right next to each other, an extreme (or so I thought then) illustration of mental and social isolation while in close physical proximity -- has become depressingly common. I'm sure we've all watched as a person ostensibly partaking in a group conversation or activity has also been carrying on a different conversation texting on their cell phone, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes not.

In the film it may have been intended to show how crews that really couldn't get away from each other could maintain a kind of distance, for their own sanity. Perhaps the same purpose is served today by texting while otherwise engaged.

As for the launch, he said, manfully dragging the thread back on topic, it was indeed pretty. Pretty normal, pretty boring, pretty terrifying -- all the usual things that such a launch must be. That's what launches should be, usual. It's the unusual that you want to avoid.

Rob

rstevenson wrote:
What struck me back then as implausible -- the two of them watching the same thing on two different screens right next to each other,

You have to be careful there, Rob!

One might get the impression that all this was done on a sound stage.

rstevenson wrote:
an extreme (or so I thought then) illustration of mental and social isolation while in close physical proximity -- has become depressingly common. I'm sure we've all watched as a person ostensibly partaking in a group conversation or activity has also been carrying on a different conversation texting on their cell phone, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes not. In the film it may have been intended to show how crews that really couldn't get away from each other could maintain a kind of distance, for their own sanity.

Well, thank god at least that HAL is still sane.

I thought this was pretty cool. Father and son, at the first and last shuttle launch:
Regardless of my views of the manned space program, I have always wanted to see a shuttle launch and feel slight regret that I never will.