Earlier this week the House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the crew of Apollo 11 on the 40th anniversary of that historic landing. Well, a little later this week two senators introduced a resolution of their own, S.Res. 222, to honor an astronaut: not any members of the Apollo 11 crew, but Chris Cassidy, a member of the STS-127 crew currently at the station. Cassidy’s claim to fame, besides being an astronaut, is that he is considered the 500th person to fly in space, a somewhat arbitrary distinction since he is one of four rookies on this mission, and there had been 498 people in space before it.
Cassidy is from Maine, and the resolution was introduced by the state’s two senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. “As our nation celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and the first man on the moon, Lieutenant Commander Cassidy’s journey to space marks a new era, with Chris becoming the 500th person to venture beyond earth’s gravity,” said Snowe in a statement. “I commend Chris for his heroic contributions and commitment to advancing science and human understanding.”
Its good to know that Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have so much free time on their hands.
Again, as I said (and pretty darn well written too!) in the Gold Medals Yes, Autographs No bit: this is attention grabbing by irresponsible members of the Senate. Irresponsible you say – is that a bit of a stretch? Think about how much it costs to get the certificate, how much it will trouble the recipient to store it, it will give other people cover to bestow more, etc etc etc.
Probably Chris Cassidy really doesn’t even want it – though it is surprising sometimes to see how people love some recognition. We should hope that Cassidy is not one of them.