Lebens Raum Ad Astra

It is a great moment to see private enterprise loosen the iron grip of the State on spaceflight.  If Elon Musk and SpaceX are allowed to continue pushing the boundaries of commercial space access, we may yet get to see space tourism - a decades-old dream - come to life.

I stayed up late into the night to watch the Crew Dragon launch, and I admit I got a little choked up to see private enterprise finally succeed in an endeavor previously reserved for the exclusive use of government operators and political entities.

The Dragon's gleaming interior and ultramodern design mark a stark break from the bleak, utilitarian cockpits of the defunct space shuttle, or the cramped confines of Soyuz.  Sleek couches, spacious interior, a couple of touch screens, and a handful of buttons were all that didn't clutter the sci-fi environment of SpaceX's minimalist design.

Though I was moved by the launch and fascinated by the engineering and design work, I couldn't help thinking that I've been watching this exact scene play over and over for the past 60 years - since the days of Yuri Gagarin (or was it Vladimir Ilyushin?) and Alan Shepherd.  Even more, chemical rocketry is a century old - almost as old as the automobile, rockets in general have been around for 2,000 years celebrating Lunar New Year.  Let's no forget that a number of dogs and monkeys preceded humans into space, as well.

The first iron tube rockets were invented Mysoreans in India in the 1700s.  A British officer named Congreve stole the idea for his rockets in the 1800s. American Robert Goddard is generally credited with inventing modern chemical rockets, though he was standing on the shoulders of many a giant.

In other words, SpaceX is just one in a long line of rocketeers who have refined the physics and abilities of rocketry, but the craft is almost as old as written history.

Sure, I applaude the milestone set by SpaceX, of commercial human spaceflight.  It is a significant achievement, even in the long, storied history of rocketry, especially getting one of the (ahem) pioneering nations back into orbit after a decade of bureaucratic bumbling.

The question I have, though, is where are all the real toys?  Are we really to believe that the 100 years of intense rocket development, the trillions of dollars in research, the many nations involved have only achieved something slightly more advanced than Chinese fireworks?

With all the decades of development on ion, microwave, nuclear, and electro-gravitic propulsion, the best humans can do is fart flaming gas out of a tube?  Why aren't we using aerospikes and EM Drives and spin-stabilized LASER launchers?  How is it, with the vast sums of money and millions of hours of research, we still can't do better than bottle rockets?  Why is it that spaceflight hasn't changed much since the Nazi innovations of the 1940s?  And why are their REAL advances listed as hoaxes?

Given all the possible reasons to riot, one might think that having a century of our savings stolen for projects and technology that we're not allowed to see, much less use, would be chief among them.  We the people are owed a huge debt and we are being deprived of collecting on it by a group of people who are hording our property from us.

Instead, we are told to be proud and joyful at yet another rocket launch, a feat nearly as old as civilization and one which the Russians and Chinese have been happily doing for the past decade while the US was grounded and begging rides.

I want the real toys.  I want to see the man behind the curtain.  I want all the things that were promised decades ago in the blush of human spaceflight adolescence.  We paid for it, we deserve it.  It is our heritage and achievements that are being robbed from us under our noses.

Way to go Elon and SpaceX!  Great job!  Nice design work!  Outstanding attention to detail.  But it's time your partner NASA gave us the goods that we've paid so dearly for - and farting tubes ain't it.

Random Thoughts On Shrubbery

There is some next-level weirdness going on right now and it's going to take a little explanation to see it, so please bear with me as I put all the pieces together.

Osiris, Isis and Horus were ancient Egyptian deities.  Osiris and Isis were brother and sister, as well as husband and wife.  Together, they produced Horus, their son.  Even the shallowest of efforts will demonstrate the similarities between this Holy Family and the one commonly revered in Christianity.  In fact, their story has numerous parallels with central elements of the Christian faith, particularly death/resurrection.

To make an incredibly long and complex story as concise as possible, Osiris got into a huge fight with his brother Set, and Osiris was hacked into 14 pieces.  Isis collected the pieces and sealed them inside a tree trunk, except for the penis.  Isis was a virgin, you see, and hadn't yet borne a child with Osiris.

Isis tossed the tree trunk into the Nile river and impregnated herself with the severed penis.  After three days, Osiris was reborn as the constellation we call Orion, while Isis gave birth to Horus.  Horus went on to take revenge on Set for killing his father.

The reader may, at this point, appreciate the similarities to Disney's The Lion King, as well.

At this point, Horus becomes Mars, red with anger and wrath.  During the battle, Horus receives an horrific wound to the face and loses his eye, though he ultimately vanquishes Set.

Millennia later, Mariner 9 (1970s) revealed to the world (for the first time?) that Mars did indeed have a immense scar across its face (Valles Marinaris).

Jumping around, we come to another ancient Egyptian deity called Bennu.

Bennu is symbolized by the Nile stork, a large ungainly looking bird.  The Bennu was said to have created itself before the world, and was intimately involved in the First Creation.  The Bennu is often cited as the prototype for the Western phoenix bird which, at the end of its life is consumed in flames and then resurrects itself from the ashes.

We should also make a side note of NASA's Phoenix lander, a billion-dollar shovel that landed on Mars in 2008.

Those are the pertinent mythological points.  Now for the next-level weirdness.

On 26 November 2018, NASA's InSight, a billion-dollar drill, landed on Mars at Elysium Planitia, or Elysian Fields.  Interestingly, the Elysian Fields were the ancient Greek vision of Heaven, where good and heroic souls were rewarded with fair skies and boundless harvests.

On 1 December 2018, George H. W. Bush (41st president) dies at the age of 94.  Bush was the son of a Nazi collaborator, Prescott Bush, and initiated the First Iraq War on his former business partner, Saddam Hussein, though he never finished the war.  His son, Geoge W. Bush (43rd president) finished the job with the Second Iraq War, in which Hussein was finally put to death, thus vanquishing his father's enemy - though the war drags on for decades even as we speak.

A sealed box (tree trunk) ostensibly containing the remains of G. H. W. Bush was placed in the center of the US capitol for three days (!) before a taxpayer-funded orgy of political wailing and gnashing of teeth took place on 5 December 2018.

GHW Bush is only one of 31 individuals to be so honored in the history of the US, despite having a seemingly undistinguished career as an carpetbagging oil man who ran the world's most infamous spy agency for two years, then became a nearly invisible Vice President, then a caretaker President whose biggest achievement was starting a war.  An awful lot of hoopla for someone who did so little - apparently - for the world.

Three days later, on 3 December 2018, NASA's OSIRIS-REx craft (literally "King Osiris") arrived at asteroid 101955 Bennu - I shit you not.  The asteroid is almost perfectly cube-shaped and it stretches credulity that this object is natural.  The craft is currently preparing to perform several touch-and-go maneuvers to sample the object's surface and return the material to Earth.

Curiously, the OSIRIS-REx will wait until 4 July 2020, to begin sampling the surface of Bennu.  Note the date and year.

G. H. W. Bush has been long suspected of being a CIA asset, and possibly even involved in the JFK Assassination, which was itself a highly ritualistic murder of a god-king.  Bush also served as head of the CIA before becoming Vice President under Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Speaking of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president was shot on 30 March 1981, by John W. Hinkley, Jr., in an attempted assassination attempt.  Hinkley Sr. was president of the Vanderbilt Energy Corporation and the Hinkleys were an oil family who were close associates of the Bush family, and top contributors to GHW Bush's campaign in 1980.  Hinkley's brother Scott was set to have dinner with Neil Bush in Colorado the night of the shooting.  Neil was a central figure in the Silverado Savings & Loan scandal.

O what tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

The CIA was formed out of the original spy organization called OSS.  It incorporated significant elements of the Nazi spy network after World War 2 - a symbolic rising from the ashes, one might say - specifically the Gladio network formed under the infamous Gen. Reinhard Gehlen.

The Nazis were well-known for their dabblings in the occult and mystic symbolism.  Notably, captured Nazis were folded into the CIA and...wait for it...NASA, under Project Paperclip and similar operations.

Bush served one term as president from 1988-1992, when (guess who) the Clintons took over.  He was largely seen as a caretaker president continuing the Reagan Revolution policies, and the most significant moment of his presidency was the First Iraq War, in which he went after his former oil partner Saddam Hussein, who was threatening the Petro Dollar system by accepting currencies other than the dollar for Iraqi oil.

Bush's son, G. W. (aka Shrub) was elected in 2000, in a highly contentious campaign with (guess who) Al Gore (aka Mr. Global Warming).  During Bush the Second's reign, there was a major terror attack on 11 September 2001 (note the date), which precipitated the Second Iraq War in which Bush II vanquished his father's enemy.

Interestingly, 101955 Bennu was discovered on 11 September 1999 (note the date).

Now, if one were conspiracy minded, which I certainly am not, one could squint at all this in just the right lighting and see the following:

GHW Bush is the symbolic incarnation of Osiris, who was brought down by his enemy Saddam Hussein.  His son, GW Bush (Shrub) took up the mantle and finally overcame his father's mortal enemy.  Bush I approved funding for the International Space Station (ISiS), which began construction during the presidency of Bush II.

GHW Bush died just THREE days before OSIRIS-REx, NASA's asteroid mission, arrived at 101955 Bennu, thus symbolizing an offering to the god of Resurrection.  The probe will touch the 'god' on 4 July 2020, likely in close proximity to the Republican National Convention, thus ritualistically awakening the 'god' to resurrect the Bush Dynasty just in time for the 2020 presidential election.

GHW Bush is also being kept in the capitol rotunda, under the painting of George Washington achieving godhood, for THREE days.  A rare honor.

And did we mention the odd, unnatural shape of 101955 Bennu, which is almost a perfect cube?

At the same time, just days before GHW 'died', NASA's InSight mission landed in Elysian Fields on Mars - in other words, in Heaven on the symbolic manifestation of Horus.

Oh, and all of this happened at the precise moment when certain key individuals were supposed to testify regarding the Clinton Foundation and Uranium 1 scandals, and the treasonous use of national security apparati to spy on candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election.

And two key federal agencies at the center of all this - CIA and NASA - were both formed from the ashes of the Third Reich, which was really into all this occult symbolism stuff.

Have no fear, though, all of this is just an incredible series of coincidences that have absolutely nothing to do with reality, because we are an advanced civilization now, that doesn't believe in such ritualistic nonsense.

Right?
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Post Scriptum:

On 11 December 2018, just days after OSIRIS-REx entered orbit around 101955 Bennu, it was announced that the "fingerprint" of hydrated clays were found across the surface of the asteroid.  This suggests the presence of water, though the headlines make it sound as if there are literal puddles lying around.

This is significant for a number of reasons - not just the symbolic ones noted above.

First, we have been told for decades that ices present on the surface of comets is what causes the coma and tail(s) as they heat up in the sunlight and out-gas.  Bennu is located well within the range where comets should begin outgassing, yet Bennu is obviously NOT doing this.  Furthermore, almost zero water has been found on the surface of comets visited by spacecraft, yet this "asteroid" is literally awash, if we are to believe the howlings of the "science" media.

Second, the shape of Bennu combined with the presence of water makes for an interesting combination.  Bennu is almost a perfect cube, which is virtually impossible in a natural object, unless it is a massive sugar crystal.  The implication is that Bennu is artificial and if its internal atmosphere had leaked out over centuries/millennia, then it would account for the presence of moisture on the surface, as water vapor condensed after escaping the interior.

Third, we are told that Bennu is interesting for its very high carbon signature.  This brings up the Cosmic War speculation so eloquently outlined by Joseph P. Farrell and others.  If the asteroids are indeed remnants of an exploded planet (Planet V or Tiamat according to different theories), then being covered in carbon would be a signature of this explosion.

It gets much stranger, and this will likely become a mini-series of articles in the future, so stay tuned!

Who Or What Is NASA Resurrecting?

NASA's strangely named probe OSIRIS-REx just rounded Earth on its way to asteroid Bennu.  It passed about 11,000 miles/20,000 kilometers above Antarctica on a sample-return mission to Bennu that should wrap up sometime in 2023, with a packet of gravel being hurled at Earth.

Now, I like Richard Hoagland, despite the fact he is little more than a P. T. Barnum type with some smart people behind him doing all the work. One of his "wild-eyed theories" is that NASA is deliberately performing magic rituals based on Egyptian/Masonic mythology, and in the extant case it is hard to argue against it.

The asteroid 101955 Bennu is named after a minor Egyptian deity called Bennu, which took the form of a heron bird.  Bennu was a symbol of Egyptian Sun and resurrection cults, and was frequently a part of ancient Creation myths.  Bennu is also likely the prototype for the more familiar phoenix, which is periodically consumed by fire (Sun) and resurrected from the ashes of its previous incarnation.

It gets better.

Osiris was the Egyptian father of the gods,  He was the origin of the Greek god Chronos, who is represented by the planet Saturn, and was considered the First Sun of our Solar System, later deposed by Zeus, and then our current Sun.  Osiris is represented in the sky by the asterism of Orion, whose belt is mirrored by the three great pyramids at Giza.

Osiris was married to Isis, whose name appears quite frequently in the news these days, either as a reference to a bunch of CIA assets posing as Islamic terrorists, or as the International Space Station (ISS).  Isis is the precursor of the Virgin Mary in Christian doxology.  Isis was not only the wife, but sister of Osiris, as well.

Their brother Set or Seth was a rather power-hungry sort.  He is likely the model for Zeus, and he killed his brother Osiris in a terrible battle.  Set defeated Osiris and hacked his body into 14 pieces and scattered them across the Earth, thus making himself the king of the gods.

Isis set out on a mission to collect the pieces of her husband/brother Osiris, and placed them inside a hollow log, except for the penis.  She bound the log together and tossed it in the Nile River, where it remained for three days before Osiris was reborn (passion, death and resurrection of Christ).  It should be noted here that Isis placed a number of herons, or symbols of Bennu, inside the log with Osiris' body to ensure resurrection.

After rebirth, Osiris became god of the dead and ruler of the Afterlife, while Isis took his dismembered member and impregnated herself with their son Horus.  Note the virgin birth echo here.  This is not a spurious connection, as quite a bit of Christian iconography depicts Mary nursing Jesus in identical poses to Isis and Horus.

Horus was symbolized by Mars, as an angry, scared and red individual, who took it upon himself to get revenge on Set for what he did to Osiris.  Horus was deeply wounded in the battle, and lost his right eye, which many will recognize atop the Masonic unfinished pyramid.  He also received a deep scar on his face, much like Valles Marinaris on Mars, though no one has ever explained how the Egyptians would have known about such a feature.

Despite this necessarily abbreviated version of the story, the symbolism it contains is rather curious.  NASA not only chose 101955 Bennu of the thousands available as the target of its asteroid sample-return mission, but the mission would be called OSIRIS-REx, which of course means King Osiris. 

NASA also chose to swing the craft directly over Antarctica during a gravity-assist maneover, a continent that has been the focus of quite a bit of attention over the past few years due to rumors of strange discoveries there related to ancient civilizations.  We cannot forget that just last year, NASA star Buzz Aldrin, ostensibly the second man to walk on the Moon, went there and had to be air-lifted out due to a mysterious illness.

Hoagland has made a rather compelling case for the use of symbolism and ritual by NASA in its history of spaceflight.  We then have a craft named after Egyptian god Osiris with the title of "king" no less.  Osiris carries with it connections to death, resurrection and the Sun (before his death).  His son is connected with Mars and the Masonic eye.  Its mission is to an asteroid named after Bennu, Eguptian demi-god of resurrection, creation and the Sun, with a connection to the mythical phoenix and symbols of which were placed in the coffin of Osiris to ensure resurrection.

With all the interlocking symbolism of death, resurrection, the Sun, and ties to Egyptian, Masonic and Christian symbology, plus the curious ritualistic "death" and "resurrection" of Buzz Aldrin, a NASA star, in Antarctica, and the "coincidental" fly-over of Antarctica by Osiris-REx on the way to Bennu, would has to wonder what in the hell is going on over at JPL?

What or who is NASA trying to resurrect?  What is in Antarctica?  Why all the strange, interlocking symbolism?  And why is the mission being kept so quiet, given NASA's proclivity for announcing even the slightest achievements to justify its bloated expenditures of taxpayer money?

It all makes for some interesting musings, when one isn't overwhelmed with trying to survive in this world gone mad.

Some thoughts for a Saturday morning...

Lasting Impressions

In August of 1966, I was 5 years old.  Very impressionable age.  I was in the first class of the TeeVee generation.  I soaked up media in a way my parents had never experienced.  Part of that soaking was the sheer pomp and propaganda surrounding the US space program.

My mother says that even though I was still an infant, I was entranced by Glenn's orbital flight coverage.  I watched every bleary-eyed moment of coverage of every mission.  Whenever someone would ask what I wanted to be, my first and only answer was, "The first man on Mars."

I also had a priviledged position.  My father was a Texas legislator from Houston.  Houston, you may recall, was made the center of the US manned space program by President Lyndon Johnson.  As a consequence, Dad got invited to NASA quite a bit.

On one occasion, I was toted along during one of his political stops there.  I was in awe, as any 5-year-old would be in such a situation - especially one who idolized the space program.

Those were heady days at NASA.  The Kennedy mandate to land a man on the Moon by 1970 had caused floods of money to pour into NASA.  The government propaganda machine was in full gear cranking out heroes of demi-god status, called astronauts.  The astronauts' egos were certainly up to the task.  They were as boisterous and strutting as the NASA media machine would let them be.

It was August 1966, as I said.  We had just toured Mission Control and the training facility.  Dad and several other legislators were surrounded by a gaggle of bureaucrats all bowing and scraping to ensure political favor in Austin and beyond.  I was one of three privileged kids who were being gently herded into a corner while the adults discussed sacred matters of global domination, national security and Cold War politics.  I didn't care much for all that.

Instead, I was gawking and absorbing my surroundings.  It was as if a devout Catholic were standing in the Pope's apartment waiting for an audience.

There was a commotion among the adults.  Three of the astronauts had just come in to glad-hand and be seen.  They were political props.  I could identify with that.  I was too.  I was always trundled out when Dad needed to demonstrate his commitment to 'family values', even though that term had yet to gel in American politics.

I recognized Gus Grissom and Alan Shepherd, the first two Mercury astronauts.  There was a third figure with his back to me.  I could just see the buzz-cut strawberry blond hair.  At one point, though, he seemed to be struck by something and he turned to us kids in the corner.

It was Neil Armstrong.  I recognized him immediately, since he had just months before been all over the media after Gemini 8.  At the time, we the American public weren't allowed to know it, but Armstrong had cooly saved his own life and that of his crewmate David Scott.  Their mission was the first ever to attempt a docking between two craft on orbit.  They had rendezvoused with the spent stage of an Agena satellite launcher.

Carefully hidden from us mere mortals by the government propaganda machine was that Armstrong's ship had had a major malfunction and had spun wildly out of control.  They had to abort but couldn't re-enter the atmosphere until the capsule had stopped spinning.  Armstrong had carefully brought the machine under control and was finally able to stabilize it enough to get home.

This same man now walked over to us kids with a soft smile on his face and he squatted down to our level.  The other two kids were generally ignorant of who was now addressing us, but I knew...and I was dumb-struck. 

He reached out and shook all our hands.  The other two kids gave timid response, but I offered the best Texas arm-twister I could muster, given that my hand was engulfed in his.

Armstrong seemed to focus on me.  Maybe it was my own focus on him, or maybe I had a look on my face that said I was more aware of my surroundings than the other two.

"So what do you guys think of all this," he asked, looking around at our little clique.

"This is really cool!", I blurted out.  The other two kids made some half-hearted responses.

"Do you like the space program," Armstrong asked us.

"Oh yes, Mr. Armstrong!"

He cocked an eyebrow at me.  "You know who I am?"

"I saw you on TeeVee.  You were on Gemini 8.  What's it like?"

"Wow, you sure know a lot, don't you?  It's really strange up there.  It makes your stomach tickle.  Would you like to be an astronaut?"

"Yes!  I want to be the first man on Mars," I gave my standard media response.

"Why is that," he asked with a smile.

"'Coz I think a red-head should be the first man on the Red Planet," again offering my standard media line.

Armstrong laughed and patted his head.  "I wholly agree with you!"  He tossled my hair just to emphasize our joint membership in that exclusive club.

"How do I become an astronaut," I asked with genuine desire.

"Work hard in school and learn everything you can.  By the time you're old enough, they should be about ready to crew up for Mars," he offered.  "I have to go now, but you kids enjoy yourselves."

"Thanks, Mr. Armstrong!"  I enthused.

He stood and smiled again down at us rugrats, then he turned and walked back to the group of adults.  He exchanged some words with Alan Shepherd, who turned and gave me a smile and a wink.  I felt my knees nearly buckle.

Two years later, Gus Grissom died in the capsule of Apollo 1 on the launch pad.  That was a devastating blow to my 7-year-old psyche.  He was one of my heroes, too.

Three years later, Armstrong radioed back to Earth, "Houston, Tranquility Base here.  The Eagle has landed."  I just knew when he said "Houston", he was thinking of that little red-headed kid at NASA headquarters that sweltering August afternoon.  I felt chills run up my spine. 

I still do, when I think about it.

Shepherd went on to land on the Moon with Apollo 14, and became the first man to play golf on another world.  I had occasion to meet him several more times over the next couple of decades, until he died in 2007. 

I remember at one point early in my career as a TeeVee cameraman running into Shepherd at a hoity-toity function at the River Oaks Country Club.  I lowered my camera and reached out to shake his hand.

"Mr. Shepherd, you're one of my heroes," was the only intelligible thing I could manage.

He looked at me and said, "Well, you look like a fairly intelligent young man."  He smiled and winked at me and moved on with the crowd.

I went on to a satisfying media career, since that was what I was immersed in, being a political brat.  But, I did study several semesters in astrophysics at university.  I never lost my awe of Space, the Universe and Everything.

Now the nice man who was the only one of the adults to come over and talk with us kids has gone on Life's greatest adventure.  I can only imagine what he saw and felt in his life.  But I know that both he and I, and Mankind for that matter, are no closer to walking on Mars than we were that day 46 years ago.  In fact, we seem to be getting further and further from it.

I know that our future lies 'out there', and so did that nice man at NASA. 

I was secretly hoping that Armstrong's death would trigger the release of some Great Secret about the Moon.  Maybe that will come when the last Moonwalker passes on.  Maybe never.

Nevertheless, Godspeed, Neil Armstrong.  You left a lasting impression on this little red-headed political brat standing in the corner, out of the way of adult business.

I'll never forget.