I hope my daughters fall in love with Space(X)
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I remember vividly as a grade school kid watching the space shuttle launches and landings. I remember as a fourth grader when NASA announced a nationwide contest to select a teacher to go on a Shuttle mission and one of the teachers from our school decide to apply (she wasn’t accepted, but that didn’t matter). I recall with horror as we watched the Challenger explode moments after take off from my homeroom.
Space was a phenomenon to me as a kid.
My love of technology, exploring, imagination and creation was in many ways inspired by the adventures of space — less the movies about space battles or wars, but more about the reality of man traveling to space. No I didn’t grow up with the initial space race or moon landings, but I grew up on the Shuttle.
As a dad with two young daughters (2 years old and 6 months), I get so incredibly excited watching SpaceX launches (and landings of the rocket back on it’s landing pad). I am reminded how much joy I had as a young boy and how much it inspired me.
Today, my single biggest hope for my daughter (other than normal happiness, health, etc.) is that she gets to experience the same magic I had watching men look to the skies. And I even hope she gets to experience our efforts to colonize Mars.
Thank you Elon, the SpaceX team and NASA for re-reminding me of the magic of space and all it’s wonder and power. And I hope five, six, ten years from now Quinn, Parker and I can watch lift offs and landings much like I did in school (hell, maybe you can schedule more launches during the school day for kids).
I predict a generation of scientists, astronauts and dreamers are being raised watching SpaceX launches on the internet. It’s going to be amazing…
PS — Thanks to Bill Lee and Elon Musk for making Twitter so exciting on launch days and inspiring this post. ;-)
