ENDEAVOUR

Somethings in life are spectacular and then become ordinary and eventually passe and then pretty much ignored. I have always enjoyed flight into space. If I didn't get so motion sick...I think being an astronaut would be a phenomenal occupation. The space shuttle program is getting, like all of us, old. But just because it is old doesn't mean that it doesn't have a purpose...it's just being retired. It is suppose to be replaced with more technologically advanced and sleeker models...hmmmmm sounds like people! However, with the current administration....especially one who tauts education most notably for engineers and science...the space program is taking a backseat spot amid all the bailout gaffes!

The space shuttle was something that I don't think the majority of us realized would be a possibility...after all, my mom believed the moon was made of green cheese or something like that! Men landed on the moon! From rockets with space capsules to shuttles that looked like airplanes but used booster rockets to propel them into space. Then a space station was built, and telescopes launched that send back spectacular pictures of the world beyond planet Earth!

There have been disasters....Challenger and Columbia one on the way up, one on the way down...devastatingly sad! But today, I got to see the Endeavour rise from the swamp land and become a shining star in the sky. It will most likely be the last night-time shuttle launches and there are a total of four more launches until....there won't be anymore...sad! It took a journey of 48 hours the first attempt was scrubbed in the last minutes because of a low ceiling of cloud cover a trip home and then deciding if we would undertake the risk again...we did...a total of 16 hours and two round trips, chilly 41 degree temperatures, for only seconds of a spectacular sight of seeing Endeavour take off from launch pad 39A with the $400 million piece of the space station named....tranquility! It will give the space station a window view of the Galaxy!

This launch was much different from the return to space with Discovery and hotter than heck day but a fantastically awesome daytime launch. Callie has gone will me on these journeys...what memories she will have even if she rather blows them off at this youthful time in her life....she fails to realize that she was a first had witness to history in the making! One of many in her young life. Now...it's the memories and the pictures!!!! God Speed Endeavour's Crew!