40 years ago... No, wait...

I had been anticipating this past Christmas Eve's blog post for some time now. It would be the FORTIETH anniversary of mankind's first ever excursion from the confines of Terran orbit. (Why is "Gaia" so cool and accepted? Terra has always been SO much cooler.) Apollo 8. Frank, Jim, and Bill. Out and about.

Then it hit me: That wasn't the year. You can tell because 2007 doesn't end with an 8. Then it hit me some more: I'm NOT going to be forty this month! Whooooo!

So anyway, forty years ago we were still a year out from the Apollo 1 fire. (I should have noted that last January, but I didn't.) Heck, forty years ago we were still almost a year away from Apollo 7, the first manned launch of the Apollo program, and the first time back into space since Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin splashed down in November of 1966. Put another way: There were no American spaceflights for almost the entire run of Star Trek.

Well, gives me plenty of time to write up THAT entry..