Even after watching more than 100 of the 135 space shuttle launches as they happened on TV over the past 29 years, this morning's final send-off of Atlantis got my heart racing and caused me to hold my breath a bit.
It's a familiar feeling -- one that I still remember getting the first time as I opened my hometown newspaper following the third space shuttle flight. There on the page were beautiful full-color images of a vehicle that never failed to be awe-inspiring to this small-town Oregon boy with dreams of someday making his own journey into space.
Here's another one from NASA's website this morning:
What a gorgeous vehicle. What an amazing piece of technology. What a ride it must be!
Since the day my middle-school-aged eyes feasted on those newspaper photos, the shuttle program and I have been on a journey together. That journey included: clipping and saving articles about those early flights (one file folder for each mission); writing to NASA and receiving high-quality lithographs of autographed crew photos; getting up very early to watch launch and landing coverage when I grumbled about doing the same to do farm work (My dad often said I needed to get my head out of the clouds and get busy, which is advice I still need from time to time.); being encouraged by my high-school physics teacher to pursue a career as an astronaut; and even getting college media staff to videotape NASA-TV coverage for me well after it became clear I wasn't cut out to be a physicist and decided to focus on journalism instead.
It also included two horrific moments as I watched Challenger explode in front of my eyes as I sat it my living room, home from school and nursing a bad case of the flu, but still watching the launch, and, many years later, learning that Columbia had broken apart on reentry over Texas and overseeing our special front-page presentation of the tragedy here in Cheyenne's newspaper.
I even feel blessed to say the journey included three trips to Florida's Kennedy Space Center and one to Edwards Air Force Base in California through the years. Although I never got to see a launch (or even a shuttle) in person, I did make a couple of trips to Launch Complex 39 and thrilled at showing my two children some of the things that excited me when I was a kid. I plan to make that journey again once Atlantis is on permanent display at the KSC Visitor Complex.
Oh, I know there probably will be other space missions somewhere down the line that may bring their own emotions, but I can't help but think that, somehow, they won't be the same.
Many thanks to NASA and all of the shuttle program workers for the special moments you have shared with me through the years. This program -- with all of its spectacular images and accomplishments -- will be missed.
Oh yeah, one more thing: Godspeed, Atlantis!
