The Last Shuttle...

Jr. high school conjures up many memories for me. Most are bad, but a few good times were scattered here or there.

One memory that came back to me was an assembly we had where a woman came and talked to our young minds about the space shuttle. And what I remember most about her presentation was when she talked about those famous titles.

She gave us a visual lesson. She took a blowtorch, lit it, and held it to a piece of what the tiles would be made of. She held the flame on the tile for a long time.

She then turned off the blowtorch and held her hand directly on the tile to show us all how effective they were in bringing the shuttle safely back to earth.

I watched the last space shuttle launch today on my computer (something that would have blown my jr. high mind if I could even imagined it back then...). I really wish I could have experienced a launch in person, but it was not meant to be.

Like most Americans, I've been proud of the shuttle program and felt a deep sense of loss when disasters happened (I was in Denmark when the Challenger blew up and the Danish headline of the newspaper said "Spaceship Exploded"...I didn't understand what that meant because when I read "spaceship" my mind thought of the USS Enterprise...).

And so the chapter closes in something America did right. My deepest respect for those who worked in the program. God speed Atlantis.