Looking down at the Bahamas from space… it’s a riveting image, and by all accounts more powerful in person than in a photograph. It’s also crucial to understand that the space machines that made the view possible were designed, tested, built and improved by us… by our friends, neighbors and associates… by ‘regular’ people.

Because so much of the noise around space flight was captured by “national pride,” it’s easy to pass-up the fact that every piece was created and built by the same kinds of people we see in the grocery store. The glory for this does not go to some nation-state, it goes to every-day engineers, metal workers, electricians and so on.

They did not do this. We did this.

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Now, before you go back to the mundane, spend some time with this photo: Enlarge it if you can, turn down the lights, and really experience it. Let your mind go where it will.