BOOM!
Did you hear it? That sound lasted forever on Jan. 17, complete with a “POP POP POP” trailing into the cloudy sky like a backfiring car. The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base was invisible, not invincible.
But, here’s the good—according to Col. Shane Clark, 30th Space Wing vice commander, the U.S.-European Jason-3 satellite was successfully launched into orbit, and it will monitor and measure global sea surface heights, monitor tropical cyclones, and support seasonal and coastal forecasts. For all you climate-change deniers out there: The Jason-3 will also benefit research into human impacts on the world’s oceans.
So, if excess, human-produced carbon is affecting the ocean, and the Jason-3 can prove it, don’t worry. You guys can still deny whatever you want. Free speech! And that means, dumb speech is totally allowed!
But back to launching things into space. All of that information was mentioned in a handy dandy little press release from VAFB.
Those Air Force folks did leave some important information out, though.
The backfiring rocket led me to believe that something went wrong. And although I made an incorrect assumption about the launch itself, I was right about one thing: Not everything went well. There’s this video that documents what went bad, and it happened off the California Coast on a barge near San Diego. An attempt to bring the rocket peacefully back to Earth didn’t go as planned.
BOOM! BANG! BUST!
First of all: It’s pretty cool that Elon Musk’s company is even attempting to re-land rockets after launching satellites into the atmosphere with them.
Second of all: Sorry ’bout your bad luck, but watching a rocket explode into a ball of fire is super satisfying.
Third of all: I guess SpaceX didn’t save any money on that launch.
Although, that’s the goal of re-landing a rocket rather than letting it re-enter the atmosphere, fall into the ocean, and sink to the bottom. Recycling rockets? Who would of thunk it? Musky the smart man, that’s who.
However, landing a rocket on a barge in the middle of the Pacific Ocean balancing on the waves of a stormy sea isn’t an easy thing to accomplish. As evidenced by what went wrong: One of the arms meant to hold the rocket upright didn’t kick out like it should have. Hence the long fall from glory, and the BOOM!
Mr. Musky Poo is blaming the heavy fog that blanketed Lompoc—enveloping the rocket with some icy fingers that put a hitch in the landing giddy-up.
Santa Maria could use the cold hands of justice to put a snag in the killing power of guns. More unsolved shootings that leave death in their wake prove that the solid ice that comes with successfully prosecuting a homicide perpetrator is melting with each man who gets gunned down. Residents are desperate for a solution, and the Santa Maria Police Department is giving little for answers to the questions of who and why.
All we get is that some of the shootings are possibly gang related. And some of the victims are allegedly associated with gangs. Well, Chief Ralph Martin, that really isn’t good enough. The crime statistics you were so proud of improving over the last three years will no longer be good, quotable sound bites, as violent crime in your fair city is hiking up an incline at an alarming rate.
There is little comfort in hearing that gangs are possibly involved in the rash of recent shootings. People are still dying, and residents are upset and scared. More than 100 people walked the streets on the day of the SpaceX launch, protesting, praying for peace. According to Noozhawk, the walk came hours after police responded, once again, to a report of shots fired.
It’s the third week of January, and Santa Maria already has two homicide victims on its crime statistics sheet. Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether they are gang members. Fact is: They are human. Somebody’s family member, father, husband, friend.
Fact is: Violence is pretty senseless.
Fact is: We’ve been ignoring gangs for far too long in the community of Santa Maria. Especially in the media. It’s always something that’s been reported on as being on the fringes. Out there. In the gang-o-sphere.
This person shot that person. It’s gang-related.
This person died. They’re in a gang.
It’s our job to humanize the faces that go with sorrow and death, the lives that are no longer, the lives that have to go on without. To show the community that shooting people is not OK with us, is not OK with them, gangs or no gangs.
It’s not a Hispanic thing.
It’s not an illegal-immigrant thing.
It’s not a poor thing.
It’s not a gang thing.
It’s a human thing.
It’s a happening-in-Santa Maria thing.
It’s a sucky thing.
It’s a thing that needs members of the community to collaborate with each other and police. To talk about what scares us and why. To give information willingly, so we can tamp down the number of bullet casings falling to the pavement.
The city’s Recreation and Parks Department will give a little to the cause: It recently announced that it will trade in the summer day camp for a new program that will, hopefully, reach out to a wider number of kids. It will be free. And it will need volunteers.
The Canary believes the world is better when we stick together. Send comments to [email protected].
