God Is An Astronaut

Godspeed, Shuttle: The Atlantis Mission and What Comes Next

When I was growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, one of my childhood dreams was to become an astronaut. Of course, it's probably true of many children - but it seemed somehow more real, in Huntsville, where NASA was one of the areas of work and rocket science built mainly in the city. (In 1950, the year Wehrner von Braun rocket moved its operations from Fort Bliss, Texas, Huntsville's population was 16 437. In 1960, the city had risen to 72,365, and ten years later, his population was 137,802.)

While the dream of being an astronaut went, my interest in the space program has never disappeared. So its with more than a little sadness that I will watch today, at 11:26 a.m. ( weather permitting ), as Atlantis slips the surly bonds one last time, as its astronauts prepare to become the last men and women to touch the face of God on one of the most elegant and powerful vehicles ever created by men. By Americans.

I don't really blame anyone involved in the demise of the space shuttle program, largely because there have been too many mistakes by too many people to lay the blame at anyone's doorstep. There's NASA, which became fat and lazy on its early successes and forgot that one of its core missions has always been to keep the American people excited about space. There was President George W. Bush, who was either ignorant of or indifferent to the idea that the one thing harder than killing a government program is reviving one, and decided to scrap the shuttle program years before the Constellation program would be ready to go. There is Congress, which never got behind Bush's program and doesn't seem to have any ideas of its own. And there is President Barack Obama, who fumbled the inevitable mercy killing of Constellation and has left everyone deeply cynical and skeptical about what comes next.

The plan post-Constellation is to hitch rides with the Russians and private companies until we develop a plan for an interplanetary vehicle of some kind. (von Braun was convinced he could have us to Mars in the 1980s.) The first group is one that we spent the better part of 50 years trying to beat into space and the second has very little experience in actually doing the work.

But it seems a little bit out of place now to discuss all that. The decision has been made, and the only thing left to do is fear the question that's coming. Having slipped the surly bonds of earth, will we allow ourselves to be tied down again?

God is an Astronaut announce US Tour for August | Blow The Scene

Irish post-rock juggernauts God is an Astronaut have announced their long-awaited return to the US for a headlining tour in August. The band will head stateside for the first time since 2008 in support of their latest album, Age of the Fifth Sun.

Hailing from Glen of the Downs, Ireland, God is an Astronaut have become one of the most widely celebrated underground post-rock, instrumental bands in the world, amassing a cult following of millions through word of mouth since their epic 2002 debut The End of the Beginning .