On the previous full moon,
I told you about a 3,600-year-old instrument for orienting to the year.
This full moon, a moment in time.
On February 7th, 2001, it was a full moon, and I was 21 years old, working as a production assistant on a commercial on the east coast of Florida.
We had some downtime, and the director and his DP asked what we should do that evening. I said, "Well, there’s a shuttle launch tonight at six."
They’d never seen one.
Of course they hadn't. They were New Yorkers. So we drove south for an hour to find a good viewing spot where a small crowd gathered, buzzing with anticipation, and mosquitoes.
T-Minus Ten minutes after sunset:
Space Shuttle Atlantis launched.
I grew up in Central Florida.
I had seen launches before.
But never one at sunset.
The shuttle, defying gravity, rocketed into the sky, perched on top of its iconic column of smoke.
And because of the angle of the sun, the plume caught the entire gradient of the sun's rays. It was like seeing the sunset played in reverse.
A seamless blend of shifting colors, bottom to top, painted onto a towering canvas of mist.
Time stopped.
The crowd was silent save for the audible "snap" and hurried cycling whirl of film for the next shot.
SNAP
I was speechless.
SNAP
Head tilted to the sky, deeply moved.
SNAP
Tears welling up unexpectedly. I turned to see two grown men with tears in their eyes, flummoxed. One of them gasped, “I had no idea it would be like that.”
I never forgot it.
The stunning beauty of the seamless gradient. That blend of color to color with no seam, no border, no line where one ends and the next begins. And the sheer audacity of humankind. Building countless machines and pushing themselves off the surface of the planet on a column of fire into space.
SNAP
Tonight, at 6:24 PM Eastern, four astronauts are launching on a mission to fly around the moon, on the full moon. If you’ve never seen something like this, this is as close as you can get without mosquitoes.
LINK TO LIVE BROADCAST HERE (T-Minus 1:33:15 and counting!)
I have something else I want to tell you on the next full moon. A story about a scientist in Japan and a coincidence I still don’t have a word for.
But tonight belongs to the launch.
Watch it if you can.
Maybe bring a tissue or two.
In time,
Scott Thrift
thepresent.is
“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”
— Cesare Pavese
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