Just before dawn tomorrow morning the Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled (or rather rescheduled) to launch. It will be the final night launch for the shuttle program and only 4 more launches will follow before the 3 remaining shuttles (Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour) are retired for good. Manned spaceflight will carry on with the Russian Soyuz platform, the future Orion spacecraft from NASA and commercial providers, but this will be the end of a great era. The Space Shuttle is truly a space van.
Unlike other manned space flight vehicles we have seen over the years, the shuttle was very much the van of the space program. It had the heavy hauling capacity, the pimped out living quarters and of course was a product of the 70's. No other spacecraft allowed you to load it full of stuff and take it with you like the shuttle did. The same things that have fascinated me about the space shuttle are also many of the same things that fascinate me about vans.
As mentioned earlier, I was always the kid that played in big cardboard boxes. They were never castles or race cars for me, but always spacecraft. I had long been intrigued by the self contained nature of the space shuttle (the spacecraft of my generation) and the way people were able to simultaneously travel and live inside. Poor eyesight and poorer math skills made astronaut an unlikely career, but the dreams of my own self contained space shuttle to explore my universe never faded. Having a van is the grown up manifestation of this childhood fantasy. After all, I am still playing in a box.
I have always viewed my vans as if they were spacecraft. In them I would leave behind the safety and familiarity of my home and venture into the unknown with only myself and my ship to rely on. Of course the back highways of America are significantly less hostile than the frigid vacuum of space, but the concept is similar. During my voyage I would rely on my craft to support all of my life's functions just like the astronauts aboard the shuttle. Eating, sleeping, storing my expendable supplies and so on. Extravehicular Activities (EVA's) required far less effort on my part but still called for me to exit the protective cocoon of my ship to see what was out there.
Even at 30 years old it's not uncommon to find myself daydreaming behind the
wheel of my van that rather than the Earth touching my wheels it is a few hundred miles beneath me. Through my windshield are not billboards and asphalt but the soft blue haze of the atmosphere curving away from me. As I pass from the pilots seat to the aft, I still fantasize that I am floating back, free of the confines of gravity. I will miss the Space Shuttle and as I have for years before I will daydream of it often. Part of my vanning passion and hunger for exploration will always be indebted to the big space van.
Unlike other manned space flight vehicles we have seen over the years, the shuttle was very much the van of the space program. It had the heavy hauling capacity, the pimped out living quarters and of course was a product of the 70's. No other spacecraft allowed you to load it full of stuff and take it with you like the shuttle did. The same things that have fascinated me about the space shuttle are also many of the same things that fascinate me about vans.
As mentioned earlier, I was always the kid that played in big cardboard boxes. They were never castles or race cars for me, but always spacecraft. I had long been intrigued by the self contained nature of the space shuttle (the spacecraft of my generation) and the way people were able to simultaneously travel and live inside. Poor eyesight and poorer math skills made astronaut an unlikely career, but the dreams of my own self contained space shuttle to explore my universe never faded. Having a van is the grown up manifestation of this childhood fantasy. After all, I am still playing in a box.
I have always viewed my vans as if they were spacecraft. In them I would leave behind the safety and familiarity of my home and venture into the unknown with only myself and my ship to rely on. Of course the back highways of America are significantly less hostile than the frigid vacuum of space, but the concept is similar. During my voyage I would rely on my craft to support all of my life's functions just like the astronauts aboard the shuttle. Eating, sleeping, storing my expendable supplies and so on. Extravehicular Activities (EVA's) required far less effort on my part but still called for me to exit the protective cocoon of my ship to see what was out there.
Even at 30 years old it's not uncommon to find myself daydreaming behind the
wheel of my van that rather than the Earth touching my wheels it is a few hundred miles beneath me. Through my windshield are not billboards and asphalt but the soft blue haze of the atmosphere curving away from me. As I pass from the pilots seat to the aft, I still fantasize that I am floating back, free of the confines of gravity. I will miss the Space Shuttle and as I have for years before I will daydream of it often. Part of my vanning passion and hunger for exploration will always be indebted to the big space van.