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Space, the Final Frontier
BY THE NUMBERS
By The Numbers, a look at what’s in the news . . . by the numbers. These are just numbers, not suggestions that they mean more or less than what they are. We do not suggest that one number is connected to another. These are simply facts with no extraneous details, bias or slanted reporting. To borrow (and perhaps mangle a bit) a quote from legendary fictional detective Joe Friday, it’s just the numbers, ma’am!
Yes, most Boomers know those famous words from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Sr.. “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It’s five-year mission . . . ” From the 1960s and beyond, TV viewers have heard William Shatner and others utter those, or similar words. Today though, we are talking a look at a number of things connected to outer space. It seems that March 9 is a happening day in the skies above. So come on along as we explore space, by the numbers
1961
On this date in 1961, the Soviets launched Sputnik 9. What was noteworthy about that was it carried a dog (and a human dummy). This showed that the USSR was ready for manned spaceflight.
1974
As good as 1961 was for the Soviets, they had a bad day on this date 13 years later when the Mars 7 spacecraft released early and a descent module missed the entire planet of Mars.
1997
It didn’t involve any spacecraft, but an eclipse on this date in 1997 allowed skywatchers in Asia to see the Comet Hale-Bopp during daylight hours.
2011
It was on this date that the Space Shuttle Discovery landed for the very last time after 39 successful missions. It first went up into orbit on Aug. 30, 1984.
$93,000,000,000
The budget for the new Artemis program is said to be around $93 billion. The initial goal of the program is to return humans to the moon. As most know, the launch that was scheduled for last month was scrubbed. NASA hasn’t announced a new launch date, but it is expected to be in April.
$25,800,000,000
The dollars spent on the entire Apollo program from 1960 to 1973 turned out to be around $25.8 billion. Converted to today’s dollars, that’s about $25-300 billion.
$4,100,000,000
OK, last “B” number (we promise). Each of the first few Artemis launches will cost about $4.1 billion.
4
That’s how many crew are slated to go up in Artemis when it takes off.
19,446
The number of days since the last man walked on the moon to today. Know who it was? You get extra credit points if you correctly said Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. By the way, Gene will celebrate his 83rd birthday in less than a week on March 14. Harrison is 90 and lives in New Mexico.