1. Tonite “Trudy, you have to come see this,” I said, coming in from the backyard. “Is it about the compost?” she asked. “No,” I said and walked back outside. “Wow,” she said, looking at the clear sky. “The stars are bright.” 2. Last Fall Back in the fall, just as it was starting to [...]
The road ends at the ocean. If you stand near the crashing waves on Playalinda Beach at Canaveral National Seashore and look south, you can see Launch Complex 39. Built for Saturns, for the last 30 years it has been used for Space Shuttles—until last Friday when the last one flew. Standing on the seashore, you [...]
1. The Kid on the Sidewalk We were on our way to Waffle House for breakfast. (We always have breakfast there when we’re in Cocoa Beach. It’s a kind of addiction.) So we were driving north, and we passed a kid on the sidewalk. He was holding a plain white sign that said, “Launch Photos” [...]
1. Pre-Dawn “The fishing pier’s almost full, but there’s still room.” We were the last people on the pier with a front row seat and a clear view of Launch Complex 39. It was small but clearly visible, shining on the horizon with pencils of white light shooting up into the darkness. Everyone else arriving [...]
“So, you got summer plans?” John asked me as he cut my hair. “Actually, we do,” I said. “We just made a motel reservation in Florida for the last Shuttle launch.” He was silent for a moment. “What do you mean, last?” he asked. “The last Shuttle launch. We’re going to try to see it.” [...]
We’ve been watching the sky lately, gazing into the night with our eyes angled upward. It’s been a pretty good show. Venus shining brightly in the western sky just after the sun goes down. Saturn and Mars in conjunction above her to the right and left, respectively. And for a while even Mercury lower on [...]
He is a rocket scientist. He works in Florida at The Cape beside the green-blue waters of the Atlantic where waves wash up on a sandy shore. He watched the Falcon 9 launch the other day. Here’s what he said. It’s a beautiful rocket. It looked like something out of the 60s. It was beautiful. [...]
1989 On the twentieth anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing, speaking at the National Air and Space Museum, President George H. W. Bush said: Today we don’t have a crisis; we have an opportunity. … I’m proposing a long-range, continuing commitment. … Back to the Moon; back to the future … And then a [...]
1. At the campground We were celebrating my birthday. Camping at Pedernales Falls. The days were warm and sunny. The evenings were cool. And there was no burn ban, so we were able to sit late into the night staring into the glowing embers of a campfire. One night as we were watching Orion and [...]
