I thought the space age was finished....or not!

On July 20, 1969, the United States landed the first manned mission on the moon. Immediately following that great defeat, U.S. along with other countries in the world began to explore more and more with the intention to eventually land on Mars and beyond. Up through the 1990s, information about various space missions, most unmanned, were continuously in the news, but American citizens seemed to loose interest, so it no longer is in mainstream news.

I have never been really into learning about the space or anything like that. I know the basics like what NASA is, what the International Space Station is, what the solar system is, and where the big dipper is. Other than that, I am usually lost when speaking to space enthusiasts and experts. Other than the reports of work being done on the International Space Station, I have not heard of any other space related news in years!

While looking through Today's News on prnewswire.com, an interesting headline stuck out at me. It read as follows, " MESSENGER Spacecraft Prepares For Final Pass By Mercury." Now I could just be very non-observant, but I thought Messenger was done with Mercury years ago! Well apparently I was wrong.

According to prnewswire.com, "Determining the composition of Mercury's surface is a major goal of the orbital phase of the mission. The spacecraft already has imaged more than 90 percent of the planet's surface. The spacecraft's team will activate instruments during this flyby to view specific features to uncover more information about the planet." Not only is Messenger still flying, but it will continue to fly. It will be entering Mercury's orbit in 2011.

So far, Messenger has completed three-quarters of its nearly 5 billion mile trip. "The trip includes more than 15 trips around the sun. In addition to flying by Mercury, the spacecraft flew past Earth in August 2005 and Venus in October 2006 and June 2007" (prnewswire).

I am currently taking an Astronomy class at Valley City State University, and it has opened my eyes to other missions as well. I had no idea that we were still investigating the universe besides what is done at the International Space Station. Also in January of 2006, probes were sent to investigate Pluto. These will not be back to Earth until July 2015.

It is amazing how much we miss when it is not considered entertaining anymore. When Americans lost their interest in space, suddenly it was no longer in mainstream media, and before you know it, you have more and more uninformed individuals like myself. So whether or not you thought the space age was finished, I recommend that you check out the latest missions that are currently underway. You would be surprised by just how many you did not even know about. The space age is ALIVE!