2021 saw the most rocket launches in human history - 135 from a variety of different countries.
The James Webb Telescope, also launched in 2021, is now sending back spectacularly dazzling pictures of our universe.
Ah, but there’s a problem, you see.
Smithsonian Magazine is reporting that, in the next 10 years, you and I have about a 10% chance of getting smacked in the noggin by rocket parts falling to Earth.
So to the Monkey Pox, a resurgent Covid variant and The Criminal Donald John Trump’s efforts to destroy the American system of government, add jagged rocket parts raining down around us.
One must suffer for one’s art and a few hundred tonnes of metal laying waste to midtown Manhattan or, say, Mumbai is a small price to pay for those swell colour photographs.
Now, I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy and there’s still a spring in my step and a song in my heart. Unfortunately, that song is Throw Mamma from the Train a Kiss, a Kiss.
At least inflation is staying strong. We got that goin’ for us.
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KEEP CALM, AND CARRY ON
There's 9,200 tons of stuff in space. If it all came tumbling down at once and landed evenly over the entire surface of the earth, and if everyone was outside, unprotected by a roof - of a building or a car - or by an umbrella, the average weight of debris falling on each human being would be about one-millionth of a gram if they were standing up, and not much more if they presented a larger target by lying down sunbathing.
If the distribution of debris was not even and only one in a million people were hit, it would still be an average of only one gram per person struck. Not enough to register as a small spot of pigeon poop.
There is more chance of Donald Trump being the UK's next Prime Minister than there is of you or me being hit by space debris. But if he does become PM don't blame me for suggesting it, because he probably isn't reading this.
On the other hand, if he is hit by a very large chunk of space debris, I will happily take credit.
The James Webb Telescope was launched December 25, 2021. Where did you think it had been hiding since 1990?
I'll settle for anything hitting 45 on the head...synchronized pooping from Canadian Geese, toilet ice from a passing plane, a chunk of meteorite, magma from a volcano...