The dream of space thrives

From the Legion Magazine.

The dream of space thrives

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

When I was young, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches out of Cape Canaveral were family television events without parallel. There was a sense of awe surrounding those NASA missions, culminating years later in the triumphant moon landings. The astronauts were household names: John Glenn. Buzz Aldrin. Neil Armstrong. Yes, even Yuri Gagarin.

Now, as more than 1,700 spy, military and communications satellites orbit the Earth, the visionaries appear to be coming more from the research and private sectors—names like Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, the late Steve Jobs and, notably, Elon Musk, a South African-born Canadian citizen and Queen’s University dropout whose SpaceX success is revolutionizing exploration of the heavens.

The urge to fly, but how?

Story by Terry Fallis

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by anything that flew. I well remember spending birthday money on those 25-cent balsa wood gliders. The first challenge was assembling them without snapping the fragile wings.

They actually flew pretty well, provided there was not even a whisper of wind, but they didn’t fly for long. As I recall, you had about 10 minutes of flying fun before they nose-dived into the pavement, splintering into pieces.