Lynn and I were going to head over to the beach to watch the Space-X launch today, but due to weather, they only gave it a 50/50 chance of happening. Since my favorite beach to watch the launches is closed and our favorite restaurants we wanted to visit are closed, we backed out at the last minute and just stayed home. Well, of course, they did launch today. Figures. I was glued to the tv and my heart was about to pound it's way out of my chest as the countdown neared zero! I don't think I've been this excited about a launch since standing on our 4th grade playground to watch John Glenn blast off to circle the globe! The space program was huge here when I was a kid growing up. All the way through grade school and Jr. High, the school would have a "fire drill" to get everyone onto the playground (football field in Jr. High) to watch the launches. My parents went to school with John Young and he lived just around the corner from my grandmother's house. He rode the same school bus with my Mom and she had a crush on him in h/s.
It's a shame spaceflight finally got to be so routine during the shuttle era that most people couldn't tell you if we even had a launch, much less whether we had astronauts circling the earth. Then it all came to an end and we ended up hitch-hiking with the Ruskies to the tune of 86 Million bucks per astronaut.
Anyway, I had tears in my eyes as today's launch went off without a hitch. As soon as I saw it was safely off the pad, I stepped out into the back yard to watch from there. Not quite a ringside seat at the beach as we'd planned, but still enough to get the ol' throat tightened up a bit. I'll feel a lot better once our guys are back safely on terra firma, but it looks like Space-X has it's shit together. Also, how cool are those frigging space suits??!! I foresee a lot of kids in Space-X Halloween costumes come October ... that is, IF this dang COVID-19 crap is behind us by that time. I'm willing to bet, today's launch will get kids interested in the space program again and I hope they live to experience the same thrill I felt every time there was a launch while I was growing up.
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