Wow. I’m still buzzing moments after watching the live launch.
A good portion of our company was gathered in the break room in front of the large screen TV to watch the launch of the space shuttle Discovery. Up until about 2 minutes to launch, there was still a lot of chatter in the room. However, once the final countdown started, the room was completely silent.
When the countdown reached 10 seconds, I felt like a kid watching the first shuttle launch all over again—I actually got goose bumps when the countdown reached 0 and the shuttle began its lift off.
The chatter returned until the moment that the booster’s on-board camera showed the Discovery release from the booster, fire its rockets, and fly away from the booster—with Earth receding into the background.
Simply amazing.
I’m glad I got to watch the launch with a large group of people; the excitment and anticipation in the room was palpable throughout the launch sequence right up until the moment the shuttle broke away from the booster.
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We we all know now, once again pieces are flying off the craft and further flights are grounded. Now, I say to myself, how many millions of dollars are going down the drain. I’m sorry. I see far more important things to spend our taxdollar money on than going to space. I pray for the crew’s safe return, but let somebody else carry the load for a while and gaze at the stars. I’m content to do that from my deck.