Leaving Earth at Middle Age

Getting Unstuck: 30 Years in Low-Earth Orbit, When We Left Earth, Discovery

“When you hit the moon at age 11, the rest of your life isn’t going to be easy. Like a child prodigy, you’ve got that record to uphold, an achievement removed from the ordinary flow of time and displayed like a photograph at your mom’s house. It’d be perfectly understandable if you were in full crisis mode at mid-life: getting divorced, pining new cars, contemplating the meaning of life. “At 50, you’re probably more than halfway done,” says NASA’s Wayne Hale, an even-keeled senior manager who recently left his job as shuttle program manager to help plot the agency’s course out of low-Earth orbit.”