If you want to lift your spirits, go see a rocket liftoff!

If you want to witness beauty, go see a rocket liftoff at night!

If you want to experience drama, go see a rocket liftoff at night with humans on board, risking their lives.

On March 3, 2024, I saw the nighttime liftoff of SpaceX’s Dragon spaceship, heading towards the International Space Station.

I watched the launch from Titusville—the famous view of Kennedy Space Center across a stretch of water. My son drove there with me and his girlfriend.

The Rocket was bathed in search lights. It sat on the same launch pad where the gigantic Saturn V rockets launched the first humans to the Moon, leaving the Good, Good Earth to go in Peace for all Humanity. (See the chapters “Apollo 8” and “Apollo 11” in my book Visions of America, at pages 137-139; and the chapters “Getting Off the Launchpad” and “Reaching Orbit” in my book Visions of the Church, at pages 155-162).

Now, more than 50 years later, four humans were on board SpaceX’s Dragon spaceship, heading to the International Space Station: three American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut.

There was drama and suspense.

We weren’t even sure if there’d be a launch.

A tiny crack was detected in the seal of the spaceship’s hatch. The “Rocket Scientists” kept studying the issue to make sure it was safe.

The Rocket Scientists—and all of us standing there—remembered all too well when the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia disintegrated killing all the astronauts. The final decision to launch came when only ten minutes remained before liftoff.

Several hundred of us stood nearly shoulder-to-shoulder at Space View Park in Titusville where—you guessed it—there is a great view of rockets launching to space.

For Apollo launches, I watched at home on our new color TV. We bought it to see the spectacular launches in color.

Those early color TVs were awfully expensive (adjusted for inflation).

Even worse, they didn’t work very well.

For example, the colors of faces gyrated between orange and green. The picture frequently became unsteady, distorted and skewed. Sometimes, the TV couldn’t hold the picture steady vertically or horizontally, usually due to aging, weak vacuum tubes.

In the 1960s, most TVs still used vacuum tubes. The repairman came to our house in person to test and replace the vacuum tubes, and to adjust the finicky color, horizontal and vertical controls. He replaced vacuum tubes and adjusted the controls for color, vertical and horizontal by squatting at the back of the TV while looking at the picture in a mirror.

For this launch in 2024, we monitored the countdown by streaming it on our smart phones. The color and stability of the picture were perfect in smart phones that cost about as much as our color TV cost in the 1960s (adjusted for inflation).

The streaming was intentionally delayed a few seconds from what we were seeing with our eyes. So as liftoff neared, we focused on what we were seeing with our own eyes.

Would the engines ignite? Would the rocket explode? Would the staging of the first and second stages go smoothly? Would the first stage land safely? Would the astronauts and cosmonaut reach orbit?

My memories flashed back to my childhood when rockets often blew up.

The enthusiasm and excitement of the crowd are a part of the experience that can’t be captured by modern technology—even by a big screen TV with surround sound.

My memories flashed back to Kindergarten and First Grade when our teachers at Longridge Elementary School led all of our classes in orderly lines to the cafeteria.

Many times, these early, experimental launches were scrubbed.

But, eventually, our persistence paid off. The rocket lifted off!

We stood there in the cafeteria cheering!

We cheered for Alan Shepherd, who on May 5, 1961 became the first American launched on a suborbital flight into space.

We cheered for John Glenn, who on February 20, 1962 became the first American launched into orbit.

Much of our enthusiasm and passion came because the Russians (our seemingly implacable enemies!) were ahead of us in the Space Race.

For example, on October 4, 1957 the Russians launched the first satellite. We didn’t match this feat until January 31, 1958.

The Russians launched the first man into space (Yuri Gagarin) on April 12, 1961—orbiting the Earth almost a full year before the first American, John Glenn, matched this feat.

These were the same Russians who we hated and feared. We were practicing “duck and cover drills” in case the Russians nuked Niagara Falls (less than 100 miles away). Our teachers made sure the blinds were closed so we wouldn’t be cut by flying glass.

These were the same Russians who—in October 1962, at the height of the Cold War a few months after John Glenn’s orbital flight—put nuclear missiles in Cuba, triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I was immensely pleased that in 2024 we were all cheering for the Americans and the Russian flying together into space as friends and comrades (overcoming rekindled Cold War-ish fears of Russia arising from its invasion of Ukraine).

As we cheered the rocket upward, I wondered why we’ve learned so much about the technology of launching rockets safely, yet have made so little progress getting along better with other nations, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

I realized that one of the keys to making safer and more reliable rockets is that we have learned so much from our failed efforts to launch rockets. We have learned what improvements we needed to make to the systems that secure the safety and reliability of rockets (despite Humanity and individual people incessantly going astray).

In contrast, we have learned so little from our failed efforts to establish Shalom—a Peace that overflows with justice and righteousness. (Amos 5:24).

We have learned so little about what systems of laws and customs can safely and reliably secure Shalom (despite Humanity and individual people incessantly going astray). (Isaiah 53:6; see my blogs “Civilizations and Governments: Securing Shalom” and “Civilizations and Governments: Mercy Is the Power that Preserves”.

Yet, it is clear that civilizations and governments need to secure Shalom with systems of laws and customs (despite Humanity and individual people incessantly going astray) as surely as civilizations and governments need to secure Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness with systems of laws and customs (despite Humanity and individual people incessantly going astray). (see my blog “Building Houses on Rock: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”).

Throughout history, Humanity and individual people have incessantly gone astray. Our hatred and fear of each other often leads us astray.

Nevertheless, as the Rocket sped upward in 2024, lighting the Darkness, Americans and Russians were flying together as friends and comrades.

As the Rocket sped upward in 2024, lighting the Darkness, Americans and Russians were coming in Peace for all Humanity, as Apollo 11 did back in July 1969.

Therefore, my hopes and my spirits rose as the Rocket lit the Darkness, rising on a pillar of fire amidst billows of smoke.

In particular, my memories flashed back to what I wrote about the Church Universal in my book Visions of the Church, at pages 155-156. In that book, I illustrate the first 2,000 years of church history by comparing it with the troubled, yet triumphant, flight of Apollo 13.

The flight of Apollo 13 was troubled because its Service Module blew up on the Way to the Moon. Similarly, the Church Universal is in trouble any time that its “Service Module” blows up.

Nevertheless, ultimately, the flight of Apollo 13 was triumphant. The three astronauts returned safely to the Earth.

Here is what I first published twenty years ago (in 2004) about Apollo 13 and the liftoff of the Church Universal:

Unless you knew the Truth, you would never believe that the Saturn V Moon Rocket could budge an inch—much less journey through the heavens! It stood 363 feet tall—about six stories higher than the Statue of Liberty.

It weighed six million pounds. Only a fool could think that something that big could move.

And unless you knew the Truth, you would never believe that the Church [Universal] could last a day—much less last 2,000 years. Jesus was dead. His disciples hid in fear. One of them, Judas Iscariot, had betrayed him. One of them, Peter, had denied him.

Only a fool could think that people so weighed down by sin could hope to reach heaven.

Even so, despite such doubts, the Saturn V Moon Rocket launched towards the heavens on a pillar of fire amidst billows of smoke.

And, despite such doubts, the Church [Universal] launched . . . towards heaven  on tongues of fire when the Holy Spirit filled the followers of Jesus Christ on the  Day of Pentecost . . ..

The key was the hidden power that moved the Saturn V Moon Rocket and the hidden power that moved the Church [Universal].

The Moon Rocket defeated the power of gravity by exploding chemicals inside the rocket.

Jesus defeated the power of sin through his sacrificial death and his Resurrection.

The shed blood of Jesus was the rocket fuel for his Church.

As foretold by an Old Testament prophecy:

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. . . . [H]e was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6 ((emphasis added)).

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

When has the “Service Module” of churches and of Christians blown up? How? Why?

When has the “Service Module” in your life—and in the United States—blown up? How? Why?

How and why do Humanity and individual people incessantly go astray?

What improvements should civilizations and governments make in systems of laws and customs to secure Shalom—to secure Peace that overflows with justice and righteousness (despite Humanity and individual people incessantly going astray) (Amos 5:24; my blog “Civilizations and Governments: Securing Shalom”)? How? Why?

READ MORE

For related thoughts about the Cold War and about the Russians invading Ukraine, please read my blogs “June 1962”, and “Wishful Thinking: No Calories from Birthday Cakes”.

For related thoughts about the war between Israel and Hamas, please read my blogs “Healing the Holy Land”, and “Compassion in the Holy Land”.

For related thoughts about the need for good systems—not just for good individuals, please read my blogs “Spilling Coffee”, “Individuals and Systems, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable”, “The Webb Space Telescope: Many Parts, One System!”; and “Alcatraz: Escaping by Using ‘Countervailing Powers’ Wisely”