This sad moment reminds us that, despite several decades of science in the search of reaching space, every single time men and women take off to the stars is a risky enterprise, a gamble on life and death. In an act of hubris, they defy the binds of this world.

Why try to leave this planet behind, when life has been tied to it for millions of years? Because, for humankind to grow as a species, it is necessary. Gravity holds us to Earth like a mother holds to her child, but eventually the child must break that hold unless it choke him. As we suck at the tit of the world, we must eventually look forth to the wider universe beckoning us.

Yes, we are eating this planet away, and we should pay every effort to restore what we have taken from it. But perhaps the greatest gift we will give it will be the moment we declare our independence, when we no longer need to take from it and venture into a destiny not tied to its own.

In the winter sky tonight, seven new stars have been born, singing in radio signals that ask us to join them in the symphony of the constellations.