Onward, onward

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Father Orthoduck is an unabashed space geek. He reads science fiction. He even believes that Galaxy Questis a movie worth watching over and over again as a hilarious send-off of Star Trek. And, yes, he even gets a guilty pleasure from watching Spaceballs every now and again.

Thus, he was glued to the news media over the last couple of days waiting for the Red Bull sponsored jump by the Austrian ex-paratrooper named Felix. He was not interested in the thrill of it. Rather, Father Orthoduck wanted to see whether it was possible for a human being to break the speed of sound in free fall without any other aid than a space suit. But, more than that, it was good to see humans returning to the edge of outer space, even if it were something of a stunt. At least Felix was all wired up and being recorded so that his exploit will contribute to scientific knowledge.

And perhaps, just perhaps, it will have people looking up at the sky once more and wondering how humans can break the earthly bonds to make it out to other places, other planets. Father Orthoduck does not know when the Lord will return. But, he does know that our human curiosity, which did get us into trouble in the Garden, is also one of our God-given attributes. And until the Lord returns, we ought to be exercising it and exploring the Creation into which he has placed us.

For those of you who have unfortunate utilitarian tendencies (which is not a Christian philosophy in any sense), Father Orthoduck will remind you that many many benefits have come from both basic research and from the space program. For Father Orthoduck’s fellow geeks, below is a quote from Galaxy Quest.