“God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.” On December 24, 1968, American astronaut Frank Borman ended a live transmission from lunar orbit with those words. The crew, Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders had each read part of a passage from the book of Genesis.
I watched that transmission live when it happened forty years ago tonight. We sent men to the moon in my lifetime. Now we are only able to reach low earth orbit. Tonight the night around the moon is silent indeed.
The US and Canadian military personnel has been keeping tabs on a strange object flying across the world tonight – Santa Claus. What’s more, they’ve been joined on the internet by millions of his believers thanks to Google.
They can follow Santa’s path online with a Google two-dimensional map or in 3D using Google Earth, where he can be seen flying through different landscapes in his sleigh.
But the tracking technology comes courtesy of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) which monitors air and space threats against the U.S. and Canada.
The NORADSanta website is here. My wife and I heard a report about this on NPR this afternoon. She, despite being of the same generation as me had never heard of this 50 year old tradition. She was charmed. Our thanks to the men and women away from their families tonight who help make this happen. And thanks to all those who have gone before them.
I suspect that a lot of people are cursing that song every time it comes on the radio in their snowbound car or blares from the loudspeakers in an airport crammed with stranded fliers. Because there are many, many people experiencing great difficulty traveling today. It won’t get better.
The storm pattern across the northern tier of the nation is not taking a break over Christmas, with a trio of storm systems continuing to create travel havoc from coast to coast.
It does not matter if it is travel by road, rail or air–conditions are nasty to dangerous from Washington state to Maine. The storm that slammed into Chicago late Tuesday is moving into eastern Canada Wednesday night, sparking widespread snow, ice and rain from the Midwest to the Maritimes.
Meanwhile, the combination of a potent Pacific storm and a cold front from the Gulf of Alaska will bring more snow to already snowbound Seattle and Portland, heavy snow to the mountains of the West and rain that could spark flooding in Southern California.
Folks up in Seattle can look forward to another lecture from Department of Transportation spokesmen explaining how keeping salt out of salt water is more important than the taxpayer’s lives.
I’m sorry for all the folks having to deal with travel right now. Please take it easy and remember that the goal is to arrive safely. Good luck to you all.
Space | Gaius December 24, 2008 | 
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