Moshe Kerat, CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries, sent a warm greeting to Col. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut to fly into space on the Columbia shuttle
Moshe Kerat, CEO of the Aerospace Industry, sent a warm greeting to Col. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut to take off into space on the Columbia shuttle.
Mr. Kerat said that: "We are all excited, and proud and accompany Ilan Ramon in his work in this operation, in which another important step in space exploration was laid.
"I send best wishes and congratulations on behalf of the Israeli space industry, to the American space industry, for an impressive achievement in advancing science in the field of space, and establishing technologies that contribute to research and the world economy, for the benefit of humanity."
The Aerospace Industry, as a developer and manufacturer of advanced technologies for space, wishes and hopes for a fruitful continuation in promoting the issue, and is strengthened by the community of space scientists in Israel and around the world.
May the goals set in this operation of the "Columbia" ferry be crowned with complete success, - said Mr. Kerat.
Ramon chicken, cut the sky/Avraham Tirosh
When you return safely, you will know more about the effect of dust particles on climatic processes in the atmosphere, and we will know something about the ability of parties to reproduce under conditions of corruption
Since the great days of Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball, when a curfew was imposed on the streets during its games, there has not been such a union of beating hearts, of the entire country, behind an Israeli who represents it, as in the space flight of Ilan Ramon. Nevertheless, and Shimon Mizrahi will forgive me, the one who touches the sky and even rises above it, is a little more than the one who rises above the basket in the last seconds, scores and brings the European Cup.
Connoisseurs twist their upturned noses and taunt us: "What's all this commotion?! Don't be so provincial. Hundreds of people from different nations have already flown into space, even one Saudi and two tourists and a 77-year-old old man. No big deal." So you should know, for example, that the provincials from Tokyo, a remote town in the Far East as you know, launched a special champagne named after their Japanese astronaut, when he flew into space.
We are not ashamed, our hearts beat strongly with Ilan Ramon, when he soared through fire and smoke with his friends on the ferry, and we are proud of him. It is impossible to remain indifferent to the presence of an Israeli who has the great privilege of detaching himself from everything that is happening here, to hover there, in another world, like one of the angels, and investigate grains of dust and all kinds of crystals, not the state of affairs of Sharon and his sons or of the Haifa Foundation of Mitzna. Pilots are jealous of Ramon who is in a spaceship and not them, just a citizen who is jealous that he won't be here on election day and won't have to worry about who to vote for.
He will look down on us from above and see us even smaller than we really are. Things you see from here, you don't see from there. There, above the sky, close to God, all the proportions change, so they say. It really doesn't matter there if the Likud gets 30 or 40 mandates, if Mitzna finally takes off too - not in a spaceship, just in the polls - and what exactly Sena, Olmert or Judge Cheshin said. It can be assumed that even the fateful question of whether the governor will lower the interest rate or not, is not floating there in space.
The truth is that Ramon's flight is not the pinnacle of Israeli space achievements. Israel has already developed and launched satellites and missiles, as large and advanced as any country in the world - and they are few - and its hand is still bent. But in honor of this, no one will jump into the pool in Rabin Square and no one's heart will slow down. A man in space, that's something else after all. It is neither a missile nor a satellite. I have yet to hear of a satellite gathering family and friends for a farewell party before liftoff.
Yes, I heard someone on the radio ask if there is a chance that Ilan Ramon will meet some extraterrestrials, aliens, or just strange creatures in space. Well, I ask you, in order to meet such people, does he have to fly into space? It was enough for Ramon to look around him down here, in our strange land.
So fly Ramon, cut the sky, hover above them, and we, poor people, will stay here with our Ramon and a friend of his flock, and we will keep our fingers crossed for you. And when you return safely in 16 days, you will know more about the effect of dust particles on climatic processes in the atmosphere and the ability of bacteria to reproduce in the conditions of space, and we will know something about the effect of political-climatic processes on the election results, and the ability of parties to reproduce under conditions of corruption.
