the-nita
linked to
yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day. As soon as I read the
description, I knew exactly which photo it was.
Ouch.
You see, I'm an acrophile. Have been for a while -- likely longer
than I've known the word. And a bit of a space buff. And in 1984 I
could still afford subscriptions to Science News and
Astronomy -- I don't remember which of those I first saw that
photo in, but I do remember the moment I turned the page and saw it
(printed as a full-page bleed, IIRC).
My heart stopped. A lump formed in my throat. And I discovered
for the first time that envy could be experienced as physical pain.
Oh, I'd wanted to be an astronaut before, but never as strongly as
after seeing that photo. Even now, when I see or hear the name
McCandless, my mind is filled with
this
image.
Even without the acrophilia and the envy, it's a beautiful photo
on multiple levels. And it has lots and lots of room for each
viewer to project her or his own issues into. For me, the photo
seems to whisper several things at once ...
... but while it's whispering all those other meanings, it's
shouting into my brain, "Want. To. Be. There. Dammit. Exclamation.
Point." My throat tightens up and I hear my own voice whining,
"No fair -- I wanna be there -- when's my turn?"
Bruce McCandless, un-fucking-tethered, a hundred
meters from the Space Shuttle that hauled him into orbit. First
untethered space walk. (The APoD page mentions that Robert Stewart
also got to do that the same day, but McCandless' name is the one
I always remember because he's the one in the photo.) No mechanical
connection to the spacecraft, nor to the planet; no tether, no
ladder, no mountain, just ... floating ... in ... space ...
with a maneuvering jet, and gravity and Newton's laws of motion.
Not standing on anything, not even being held up by aerodynamics:
alone outside the atmosphere. Spacecraft within reach using the
maneuvering pack, but no physical contact. I'm not sure why the
distinction between being inside a spacecraft that's in freefall
and being outside in just a spacesuit in freefall feels so
important, but it matters to me, at least as I imagine both
situations. Probably because even though each is a sealed,
pressurized container, one registers as "clothes" and the
other as "vehicle". Oh, I'd dearly love to get into orbit --
or farther -- in a spacecraft, and even that would be a dream
come true. But to go EVA, to see no walls around me, nor
anything that could count as a floor, whichever way I look,
to gaze down upon the Earth or out toward the stars, no ground
under my feet, no railing, no window, just empty space between
me and anything else; that would be one hell of a trip.
I know that for some people these ideas evoke terror or even
moderate discomfort rather than desire. I do not know whether
or not there is anyone for whom this image evokes indifference.
I understand my own reaction, of course, and I understand the
folks who'd find it scary. I have trouble imagining anyone
not being moved enough to notice one way or the other.
A couple years after that photo came out, I was in a car with
co-workers, hearing on the radio that that shuttle disintegrated
just after launch. When someone asked, "If you were offered a
ride on the next one, would you go?", that photo of McCandless
was firmly in my mind's eye as I blurted, "Oh yeah, I'd still go
-- I'd be scared, but I'd sure as hell go." Many times over the
years that image has leapt to mind. And every single time, it's
accompanied by strong pangs of "I. Want. To. Be. There."
I don't know which is worse, imagining and desiring that
experience, or having experiened it and being back on Earth
again. But you know, I'd love a chance to find out firsthand.
I know that's never going to happen. I'll have to settle for
movies and photos and stories and my own imagination, like
almost everybody else. And try to scratch that itch by looking
down from tall buildings, mountains, trees, and aeroplanes from
time to time.
And still, every time I see that photo on a page or on a
screen, every time anything reminds me of it and it pops into
my head, I'll be thinking, "If only ..."