2011-07-21

beamjockey: Drawing of Bill of the Heterodyne Boys by Phil Foglio. (Default)
2011-07-21 05:14 am

ATLANTIS Is Home Safe

Couldn't sleep. Turned on TV. Watched the final Shuttle land, safe and sound.

I watched the first one launch, also on TV, thirty years ago. I remember there were doughnuts.

Atlantis sits on the runway. On the infrared camera, I can see its auxiliary power unit puffing away like a locomotive. This was truly a magnificent technological system, and for all its shortcomings, I am sorry to see it go. I applaud everyone who made it fly.

In seventy-one days, we shut down the Tevatron, too.