Sara told me last week that her job is sending her to the Kennedy Space Center with a team to video the Endeavour launch on March 11. (Her company makes equipment for the space program & aerospace industry.) She's a big spaceflight buff and is bubbling with excitement about it. I'm really happy for her (and more than a little jealous).
I'll be in Orlando next week for a conference, and I'm bitter with disappointment that I won't be able to drive over to the spaceport to say hi while she's there. If I'm up at 2:30 in the morning that day -- which isn't unlikely -- I'm going to look eastward and watch Endeavour blaze a trail upward.
The shuttles are an obsolescent system, with many design flaws built in from the beginning (as history has demonstrated tragically). They probably should have been retired ten years ago, if we'd been able to get a replacement system in service in time. But I still think they're beautiful machines.
Godspeed Endeavour.
Posted by case at March 4, 2008 09:36 AM