Quote:On this fateful day, JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. I know that for some of the older users out there, that JFK's assassination was pretty much equivalent to 9/11. As it was an event that truly changed the face of this Nation, forever.

I was a few months old. Don't remember it at all. I wonder what our country would be like if such a violent act had not taken away so many hearts. I think the assassination led to changes for the worse in our land. The soul became less obvious and common decency fleeting. Things beyond our age were suddenly thrust upon us too soon. We never escaped the loss of innocence, conscience, and unity.

 

Several years ago, I kept seeing a faint satellite in the night sky super slowly moving through the constellation Leo. It was moving at a pace like none other I had ever seen. Really, really slow.

 

 I researched it and discovered it was Atlas Centaur 2 (694, 1963-047-A). It was the first liquid hydrogen rocket to reach orbit. 

 

As grave as the day President Kennedy was shot and killed was, the rocket body of Atlas Centaur 2 was drifting across the stars that first night I saw it because somebody determined that our nation had to keep moving. I wonder what was going through the heart and mind of whoever pushed the launch button. Such a crisp bright thing to be launched during our darkest days as a nation. Fitting for it to remain unseen in the sky except as a glint of light in darkness. Atlas Centaur 2 was launched just five days after President Kennedy's death.

 

It's still up there.

 

I like to think of it as a hidden gem in the sky specifically there for us and nobody else. It's something that probably 99% of the world's population will never, ever know about in their entire lifetime. 

 

Try to find it one night, if you can. Maybe we could use it as a link between generations.

 

http://www.heavens-above.com/SatInfo.asp...t=1&tz=EST

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