Memory Monday

 Artemis

I know everyone has been hooked on the latest space venture. I will admit I tried not to pay too much attention. In 1986 I was home making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my one year old, my two year old and my five year old while they were watching a rerun of Andy Griffith. The words appeared on the bottom of the screen about the Challenger disaster. I had it on a network channel and saw her son and his class watching the lift off, but the natives got restless. I was devastated. And now I am too nervous to watch space travel.

Later everyone started sharing memories on our local Facebook page. We live near a NASA facility in a rural area with some very special testing facilities. I think this was in 2019/2020.

"TRAFFIC ALERT—TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16 AND 17.

For the special attention of motorists in the City of XXX/XXX Township and XXX Township areas:

Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 16, and again on Wednesday, August 17, oversize loads consisting of Blue Origin spacecraft components will be transported from the NASA Neil Armstrong Test Facility to the docks. The transports are scheduled to begin at about 7:30AM on both days from the NASA Mason Road gate, just west of the Career Center. The loads will travel eastbound on Mason Road to River Road, and then north on River Road to the docks. Due to the size of these components, various sections of Mason and River Roads will be completely closed to all traffic as the haul vehicles navigate various segments of the route, to include the major intersections of US123 and State Route 123 at Mason Road, and US456 at River Road. It is expected that the transports on both days will be completed by approximately 2:30PM.

Motorists who plan to travel the above route during the time period in question are asked to take an alternate route for the next two days. Your cooperation and patience are greatly appreciated."

According to the local Facebook officials these pieces and parts that went to the special testing facility were the pieces and parts of Artemis. Here they are maneuvering the corner by our post office.

Facebook was full of videos and photos those days. You won't recognized the parts because they are covered in tight white tarps.

Since I don't follow space travel I can not verify the accuracy of any of this. But I am happy and relieved that the astronauts are home and safe.

We old timers call the facility - N A S A - pronouncing each letter separately. When my kids were teenagers they would make fun of me for spelling it instead of saying it as a word. I went through a spell when I couldn't remember which way to say it and usually guessed wrong. Once NASA became more popular on news shows, I figured it out.

The facility in the remote location has a interesting history and maybe I will do a blog about it one day. I used to attend a history group at a local library and people older than me had pretty vivid memories of the beginnings.