Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Every Apollo Mission Had a Problem

Every Apollo space mission had some sort of problem. Apollo 8 Frank Borman got sick, Apollo 9 Rusty got sick, Apollo 11 1201 and 1202 alarms, Apollo 12 the camera didn't work, Apollo 13 we all know, Apollo 14 short circuit in the abort pannel (probably an inaccurate description). The point being, on this program that we look back in history and see a huge success, there were many failures. Apollo 1 of course and Apollo 13 stand out, but other missions had issues which at the moment people did not know if they were abort situations or not.

How much is that like our lives? We all have setbacks, even in the midst of what we will eventually view as a resounding success. Yet at the time of any given setback we don't know if that will be the end of the path. The lesson here is to keep going. Yes, there may be occasion to throw in the towel, and quitting things so that we can focus on what we are best at is a good idea in my mind. Yet Apollo is really a macrocosm for each one of us summed up in a quote by Gene Kranz, "The power of space was to raise our aspirations to those things that are possible if we will commit."

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