Reorienting

Today Atlantis and its four astronauts left Earth for the final space shuttle mission, just over 30 years after that first inspirational launch of Columbia on April 12, 1981. I'll never forget that moment as a twelve-year-old boy. It opened up an entirely new way to view the world for my generation. Well, not just the world, but really everything.

I was born just in time to be held up by my mother to watch the first moon landing, which marked the successful end of my parents' generation's grand space race, but the shuttle was different. The shuttle was a new stage in humanity, less finite, promising infinite possibilities. The shuttle inspired us all in new and unimaginable ways. Now it's over. Now what? What's next?

As with everything in this world, things change, needs, requirements, expectations, abilities. Occasionally we need to step back and reevaluate, reorient, and redirect our focus and resources. Reorienting a space program that might be suffering from a lack of clear direction and, of course as with many things today, a lack of funds, is probably the right choice. Hopefully the lessons learned provide the needed inspiration for the next generation of amazing discovery.

I hope I can say the same for myself. Dramatic change can sometimes leave you little choice but to reorient your focus. But, I believe, your starting perspective may make an important difference. Is the ending of this one phase of a project, or period in a life, seen as a failure or as a lesson learned? How does one approach the reevaluation of outcomes from past choices and actions in order to improve a situation and create the potential for better and even now unimaginable future possibilities? Now What? What's next?

I'm looking forward to finding out. Onward and upward.

[Image above: Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off the launch pad for the final space shuttle mission. Image credit: NASA TV]