Astronomy Buff

Lisa Nowak, Would You Be My Valentine?

by Tony on February 12th, 2007

You’ve had a hard week haven’t you Lisa? For some reason the plan you had devised didn’t work and now people you’ve never met from all over the world are saying things about you. Things that make me cringe. I have no idea what you were up to, but the thing is, I don’t have to.

Humans are funny, aren’t they Lisa? (well, maybe not to you right this minute they aren’t.)

Most of us live our lives in quiet desperation, spending our days doing nothing particularly remarkable, until one day, someone else does something extraordinary, way outside the norm (like drive 900 miles in a diaper to fulfill some unfathomable astronaut plan) and BLAM, we hit em hard when they fall. When they’re writhing in pain on the ground, at their worst, is the best possible time to strike.

Something happened to you Lisa, what exactly I have no idea, but it must have been profound. It seems to me what this situation needs is some understanding and tolerance. There are causes for behavior like this, it doesn’t just spontaneously occur for no reason. You had your reasons, and we should be trying to find out what they were instead of vilifying you.

People have already forgotten what you’ve accomplished with your life. You were a NASA astronaut! You became something only a tiny fraction of us have been able to do. I’ve dreamt of becoming an astronaut since I was eight. I could have done it, and I tried, but it never happened. You made it happen and I respect and admire your accomplishments.

You’ve flown in space and looked down on us from a truly unique vantage point. Your perspective on the universe far exceeds ours because of it. You were to see and understand things from a point of view we can only dream of. I would understand completely if it was a totally overwhelming experience.

Hell, I cried like a baby when I saw the Hubble Deep Field for the first time, it was one of the most profound events in my life. I can’t imagine what looking out into the vast cosmos from orbit would do to me.

AstroProf was morally offended by your plan, and later lamented that it might signal a decline of NASA’s funding for future space exploration.

The Bad Astronomer is uncharacteristically silent on the matter with the exception of this one post. But, he works at NASA and I suspect that his lack of opining on your situation stems from a request from NASA that all bloggers working there not write anything to do with this. Understandable, of course. And I’m very relieved. It is absolutely none of our business.

[Update: 7/1/2007: Phil Plait (aka, The Bad Astronomer) has commented below that he did NOT work for NASA at the time of this, so therefore was under no such direction not to blog on it. He stayed away from commenting on it because of the media madness. I commend that very much. Thanks Phil, for the correction and the mature attitude you displayed during this fiasco.]

But that hasn’t stopped the major news outlets, including my beloved Daily Show, from rampaging through your life.

The thing is Lisa, not one of us know what was in your head. Not one. Yet we comment, and we opine.

As for the decline of NASA funding, like AstroProf, I worry about the effect on NASA’s funding, but it seems ridiculous to me that the actions of one astronaut could possibly effect the funding of the ENTIRE space program. It seems much more likely that NASA’s own decisions and priorities set forth by politicians sticking their noses where they shouldn’t (e.g. Demanding we go to the Moon and Mars ABOVE ALL ELSE.) is what will spell the ultimate doom for NASA.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a case in point. That boondoggle’s been around for a while now sucking up NASA’s budget. From the beginning it has been an ill-defined program and it has always seemed more of a political, rather than a scientific program. It always seemed to me like we were building it just to build it, to have something big to say we were doing in space, and that we’d figure out what to do with it once it was finished. We probably could have built several Cassini Probes, a mission to Neptune and a couple of trips to comets for what that damn thing is costing.

What IS the ISS for anyway? I mean, really? Who knows? I’d like to hear something that didn’t sound like it was being made up on the spot, well after we started building the thing. Is there any actual SCIENCE driving this thing or is it just something for us to litter Earth’s orbit up with?

So Lisa, don’t you worry. You’re not going to bring down NASA. NASA will do that all by itself.

I’m not sure what was in your head Lisa, but I don’t have to. I don’t know you or understand your life. It’s actually none of my business what you were doing.

But still, I’ll be your Valentine.

Technorati Tags: astronauts in diapers, lisa nowak, NASA

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