NASA will be launching the Orion spacecrft from a Delta IV Rocket for its initial test flight shortly- what a way to finish off my SciFi week festivus! It may be going somewhere we have already been, but it is the presursor to explorations farther afield - Mars. I remember my Dad getting me up in the middle of the night to watch the first Shuttle flight in 1981; I hope this heralds in a similar new era of Space activity.
Scrubbed for the moment winds and some technical problems....kinda cool living in Florida....never have been able to make it to a launch but I think I may try to see if I can road trip it over to watch one. I saw the last shuttle launch fly over my house, it was a streak in the sky more or less but I had the laptop going also watching the feed live.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Tampa, you could sometimes make out the contrails from the launches on the cape. The early launches became school events that they would talk about. Then we began to take it for granted and they were somehow routine. Challenger reminded us that the shuttle rides were not routine by any stretch of the imagination. I am still fascinating by them. Also saddened that the shuttle program has been scrapped.
ReplyDeleteI envy you those opportunities - lets hope that the technical glitches are resolved and that the launch goes safely, whenever that may be
ReplyDeleteDad did the same thing to me too. Sounds like your Dad was pretty cool as well.
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeletemaybe in my lifetime we end up going to Mars.. that would be some achievement
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