Space is the Place

Another thing that caught my eye in Budapest were all the NASA t-shirts and patches on backpacks.  Back in Vilnius, I noticed a lot of young persons wearing NASA t-shirts as well.  What gives?

Not surprisingly the trend can be traced back to Kylie Jenner, who first sported a NASA-inspired t-shirt in 2016.  Turns out she was referring to a 90's club that was known by the same acronym, but soon other celebrities were sporting shirts with direct references to the space agency.  NASA became so popular that top fashion designers were quick to weave the logo into their clothes, or at least a semblance of it.  Space is the place! as Sun Ra would say.

I guess I just didn't notice it before I was rummaging through a box of patches in a shop called Szputnyik in Budapest, pulling out all the space-inspired ones, as I recalled my infatuation with space travel back in the 70s.  It was Tang and chocolate space sticks for me each morning there for awhile.  Surprisingly, no patches of Sputnik or other Soviet space references.  The kid behind the counter said the owner based the name of the shop on Murakami's book, Sputnik Sweetheart, not seeming to realize Murakami amusingly transposed Sputnik with Beatnik in the novel.  The shop had more of a Beatnik feel to it, so it seems the owner played along with the joke.  Anyway, the two were both products of the 50s.

It's great to see all these young people getting interested in space again, whether the American, Russian or European program.  Today, the International Space Station is home to scientists from all around the world, echoing the theme of Star Trek many years ago.  Unfortunately, Russian rockets are still the only way to get there, as neither Space X nor Blue Origin have developed rockets able to get astronauts to the space station.  All though, Space X was the first private company to send a spacecraft to deliver cargo to the ISS in 2012, so it is only a matter of time.

There was a time when NASA and the Soviet space program Roscosmos worked together in space, but today Russia has the monopoly on ferrying astronauts to the space station.  It has been upping the costs for its shuttle service ever since NASA launched its last space shuttle to the ISS in 2011.  No matter, it is still significantly less than it would have cost to keep the space shuttle program going -- a whopping $450 million per flight!

NASA has gained more from the satellites and probes it sends into space, able to go far beyond the reach of humans.  Still, there are important experiments scientists can do in space which they can't do here on earth so the ISS remains an invaluable part of the space program.

It helps that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are investing heavily in space.  They have drawn interest once again in space travel.  Musk recently announced he would be sending his first private astronaut, a young Japanese billionaire, on an orbit around the moon.  The mission is expected to cost around $5 billion.  Not sure how much Maezawa is putting up, but he says he will bring along a team of artists at his expense to draw their impressions of the journey.  Surprised he didn't invite Murakami.

This is the type of stuff that feeds fantasies and what Musk draws upon to attract attention to his space program.  Bezos has kept a lower profile to this point but now that his amazon is valued at over $1 trillion it is safe to assume he will be spending much more on Blue Origin.

In the meantime, we content ourselves with the retro NASA space logos.  There were many, but the original design by James Modarelli is the one to get.  He based the red swoosh on a supersonic aeroplane designed to fly at Mach 3, adding the Intergalactic field of stars behind it, with NASA through the middle.  It was known as the worm and meatball in NASA circles.  No one wore it better than Buzz Aldrin.