A (space) walk among giants
Few days ago, I had the greatest space adventure on Earth at Kennedy Space Center, America’s Spaceport, NASA’s working spaceflight facility located on the east coast of Florida.
First on the list was the Apollo Era section, a place of homage to people and machines that made history and gave the Humankind the chance to step on another celestial body. It was awe inspiring moment being upclose to Saturn 5, the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status. It was this piece of art engineering machine that carried Neil to the Moon and made him famous for the one liner sentence we all recognize him for, but little did i know that, Wilson Kokalari, an Albanian-born engineer had a key role in the project. He was the main final tester of the system. He wrote the Test Project Engineering Report, a crucial step in the process. Once completed, the rocket subsystems had to be tested on how they worked. Without success in these tests the mission would not be possible. The testing program is thousands of pages long and was drafted by the Albanian engineer during two years of arduous work. His name is still to this date on a plaque on the Moon, among other major contributors to this mission.
Next on the list was the Atlantis aircraft, one out of six space shuttles ever build! The space shuttle that launched like a rocket and landed like a plane, transported astronauts and satellites into space and back for thirty years. The shuttle carried large payloads into space to build the International Space Station, and also served as a science lab while in orbit. The space shuttle launched for 135 mission from 1981 to 2011, each lasting for one to two weeks. Much to my surprise, later that day I found out that this aircraft was piloted by an Albanian decent, astronaut, William G. Gregory in 1995.
Even though this type of overwhelming achievements go beyond the notion of race, nations or political opinions, I felt proud that my nation was represented with dignity by this 2 great Albanian-Americans.
One of the main take ways during this visit was that all astronauts, after facing the deadlines and harsh environment of outer space, realized how precious and priceless our planet is; and that nations should start finding common grounds on focus more on making life more sustainable and ecofriendly. Finally, this tour through greatness and history made me realize how important it is for the new generations to never stop asking questions, to be eager about the unknown and always be on the lookout for innovative solutions. Being constantly reminded of the past generations achievements serves as inspiration, to never stop learning and growing. The mind that opens to a new idea, never returns to its original size. I am grateful to AADF, giving me this internship opportunity, to be able to cross this one off my list.
Denis Cenaj
