Moon, Stars and Beyond   A Chronicle of Fact, Fiction and Fantasy

Credit: NASA

God, I love Twitter.

I’ve got myself hooked into a whole batch of NASA, ESA and tons of other space-related Twitter feeds that keep me posted on what’s going down up there.  You know, on the International Space Station.

I might be waxing romantic here, but why is it that for all of the problems the United States and Russia have had over the years, the space program shared between them seems to be a model of diplomacy?

I’m not dumb.  I’m certain there are complexities and complications that I haven’t even considered or comprehended.  Yet, here I was only a few moments ago, looking at the latest crew for Mission 39/40 that will ride a Soyuz up to the ISS: Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev, Steve Swanson launch on Tuesday.  In May, Reid Wiseman, Maxim Suraev, Alexander Gerst (a German, representing ESA) join them.

Looking through all of the images in the gallery, everyone seems totally preoccupied with their impending mission and what they intend to accomplish once aboard the ISS.  Everyone is intent on completing their pre-launch tasks and training.  There’s lots of photo-op shoots too, all smiles and poses.  It’s more than obvious that all are dedicated to their jobs and more than likely they deem themselves fortunate to participate in this great adventure.

Does everyone discuss the current political situation embroiling our respective nations?  Can’t say that they do, or even it they’re thinking about it.  I’m sure it enters their minds.  We’d never know about it.

Perhaps the tacit message that the crew of Mission 39/40 is sending us is this: we come in peace.  We work together towards a greater goal.  All of us can accomplish the impossible.

Maybe it’s time we all followed their example.