Take Off, Eh?

“As a child,” my About page says of me, “he drew pictures of wanting to be an outer space moving van driver. As a middle-aged adult, he is not one.” This was, to some extent, inspired by the Orion III Spaceplane headed to the giant, revolving Space Station V in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I’d seen at five- or six-years old during a theatrical re-release.

The explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger was the first “where were you when” event of my life; I have no memory of the bus trip home from school, or getting from the bus into my home.

For several different Mars rover missions, I spent landing watching the NASA feed at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry instead of alone at home.

Back in 2011, I got to attend a NASA social media event at Kennedy Space Center for the final flight of Endeavor, although I didn’t get to stay through all the scrubs in order to actually witness the launch, or even visit the pad.

I hate Elon Musk. For better or for worse, that can’t keep me from watching today’s historic launch of Crew Dragon, the first time astronauts have launched into orbit from the United States since 2011, as Bob and Doug McKenzie Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley travel to the International Space Station.