California Governor Declares Today Space Day
Space is big news over the last couple of years. Virgin Galactic is on the cusp of offering up “affordable” space tourist flights, SpaceX became the first commercial company to dock with the international space station, and most recently NASA JPL proved that we could land space probes the size of small cars on another planet. Now the governor of California has decided to celebrate mankind’s achievements in space by declaring August 22 “Space Day”. If you don’t live in Cali, then don’t worry, we’ll let you celebrate too.
It may sound like one of those weird things that gets declared on the internet, but believe it or not yesterday California Gov. Ed Brown issued an official proclamation naming today the day to declare California’s love of spacey goodness. This is not quite as unwarranted as it sounds at first. California Is home to 3 NASA centers, more than any other state in the U.S. On top of that, it’s also home to several private space companies, most notably SpaceX, Scaled Composites, Masten Space Systems and Xcor Aerospace. Add that all together with the Mojave Air and Space Port and you pretty much can’t get a much spaceier state than California, even if they don’t launch space shuttles. Here is Gov. Brown’s official proclamation…
8-21-2012
PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
WHEREAS, the challenge and the promise of outer space unites all of humanity in a shared sense of curiosity, hope and wonderment; and
WHEREAS, our quest to explore space has yielded innumerable advances in technology, engineering and every scientific field; and
WHEREAS, California’s universities, research institutions and aerospace businesses have made the Golden State a world leader in space science and exploration; and
WHEREAS, space satellites have brought us all closer together by enabling telecommunications and gathering remote-sensing imagery to map the entire surface of the earth; and
WHEREAS, the recent mission of the Mars Science Laboratory, which has successfully landed the rover Curiosity on Mars, represents a significant step forward in our journey to the stars; and
WHEREAS, the leadership of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology has been central to the success of Curiosity’s mission; and
WHEREAS, the new images of the Red Planet sent home by Curiosity and the technological genius inherent in the mission have captivated the world’s imagination and reinvigorated our commitment to reach for the stars;
NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim August 22, 2012, as Space Day.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 21st day of August 2012.
Someone really should tell the Governor that if he is going to issue a “Space Day” proclamation then he really should give us some advanced notice so we could plan appropriately and throw huge parties like they do on Yuri’s Night. For that matter he could have picked a more momentous day in space history as well, seeing as how the only thing space related about August 22 was that Joe Walker took an X-15 to an altitude of 66 miles making him the first civilian to ever fly in space. It’s still a great feat, but there are other more notable days in space history. But hey, when you’re a space nerd you take what you can get. So even if you don’t live in California wish everyone you know a happy Space Day and party like an Ewok.
