On a positive note, it should be recognized that there is an African-American on the shuttle space team that's currently orbiting earth. His name is Leland Melvin, a former football player that turned to science when an injury ended his pro football career. He has an excellent entry on the NASA web page that explains how playing football gave him skills he utilizes on space missions. So cool! And, in case anyone didn't know, the current commander of the International Space Station is Peggy Whitson, a female.
The link to his website entry (which includes two mp3 interviews) is right here.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/profile_lelandmelvin.html
NASA is a world unto itself. This is a place where grown men sincerely and emphatically utter "Darn!" as an expletive. And, they're not being ironic or cheeky...it's serious when you hear "darn."
When the astronauts are up in space, Houston and ground control usually beam up a song to start off each day. Ground team asks family members to select a song for each astronaut. The first day after the shuttle meets up with the space station, usually the flight commander is serenaded in the morning. On the day Melvin was on tap to move the European section of the space lab from the shuttle to the space station, Houston beamed up "Fly Like An Eagle" to start Melvin's day. His sister picked it out. They just mentioned the song title, so I don't know if it was the Steve Miller or Seal version.
Anyway, this definitely cheered me up after a disturbing week at Simmons.
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