It felt so good to see the shuttle go up again, and have such a smooth launch. Ariel was impressed by the early parts, but got bored watching the commentary as things started taking longer to happen. It was a neat thing to watch as a family, though.

That’s one of the things I would love to go see in person. The one time I was in Florida there wasn’t a launch scheduled anytime near, and believe me, one of the considerations in planning that trip had been checking for even a chance of a shuttle launch. None in our time frame that time. Someday I hope to manage to see one. My dad used to take his 11-inch telescope to launches, so he got a really great view and was always very popular with the other onlookers.