Topic: -/\- When I was a kid, I saw the Enterprise in Tulsa.

[Sirgod]

Landing while on top of a 747, and that shuttle today, is one of the few, and fondest memories of my childhood.

I think I will try and get all the grandkids together in a few days for this, the last mission of the discovery.

http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/02/space-shuttle-discovery-nasa-cape-canaveral-travel/143916/1

After a four-month delay, the countdown starts this afternoon for Thursday's planned launch of the space shuttle Discovery - with good weather and big crowds expected along Florida's Space Coast.

It's too late for tickets to see the scheduled 4:50 p.m. launch from within the Kennedy Space Center (about an hour's drive east from Orlando), and security concerns have nixed passes for private cars on space center property. But, NASA notes, "there are many prime viewing areas outside." Among their suggestions: Several parks along South Washington Avenue (U.S. 1) in Titusville, and the Cocoa Beach Pier.

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More at link of course, But It would be nice to have a small party like event so the grandkids can hopefully feel the same since of awe and wonder, as so many of us did back in the day.

Stephen

[knightstorm]

Well, I wasn't born until After the Columbia's maiden flight, although I did see the Enterprise a few years ago in the Smithsonian.  If you want to see it again hurry, because the Smithsonian wants to replace it with the Discovery.

[Sirgod]

I know how you feel Knightstorm. I missed the moon landing by 1 year and 10 days.

Stephen

[TAnimaL]

I was barely 6 for the Apollo 11 landing, but I can still recall watching Armstrong stepping out, watching it on a dinky little b&W TV in the  kitchen, way past my bedtime, the sky above my backyard as black as the moon's. My mom was futzing around, cleaning something in the sink, like the thing I was watching was something that came on all the time...

I remember in high school, watching Columbia launch the first time. After seeing the Saturns liftoff  many times, and the stately way they climbed into the sky, me and everyone in the room gasped when the Shuttle took off like one of our model rockets after the boosters ignited.

Yet somehow, a 130+ Shuttle launches, and I've never seen one live...

But going to change that - STS-134 is April 19, smack dab in the middle of the kid's spring break. We're gonna make the 2-day trip by car, just like our cross-country trip a few years ago. They've seen the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore and Devil's Tower, and wet their feet in both the Pacific and the Atlantic, and, dammit, they're going to see a bunch of people ride a pillar of fire to the stars.

If any of y'all are gonna be at that one, look me up. I'm bringing the champagne...

(And then there's the one at the end of June...)

[Kreeargh]

Well, I wasn't born until After the Columbia's maiden flight, although I did see the Enterprise a few years ago in the Smithsonian.  If you want to see it again hurry, because the Smithsonian wants to replace it with the Discovery.

The Enterprise never flew in space sad to say, the Smithsonian dont joke around do they real relics of the past.  Kinda makes me wonder how much tax payer $ went in to this effort of a swap out .
I nope none. The them ritch fracks donate stuff .
Sirgod you did see a once in a life time flight there it would be worth alot of $ if recorded on video. The enterprise was only moved around for pr and it wasnt moved much.
Sad to see the shuttle fleet go but hell the country cant afford nasa or 16 ,17 other goverment agencys including the military budget, it we tossed ALL that out we might just might start to pay the intrest off the national debt    They wine about cutting 1 billon from this years budget, space for this country is dead unless the private sector can catch up sad to say.

[knightstorm]

Well, I wasn't born until After the Columbia's maiden flight, although I did see the Enterprise a few years ago in the Smithsonian.  If you want to see it again hurry, because the Smithsonian wants to replace it with the Discovery.

The Enterprise never flew in space sad to say, the Smithsonian dont joke around do they real relics of the past.  Kinda makes me wonder how much tax payer $ went in to this effort of a swap out .
I nope none. The them ritch fracks donate stuff .
Sirgod you did see a once in a life time flight there it would be worth alot of $ if recorded on video. The enterprise was only moved around for pr and it wasnt moved much.
Sad to see the shuttle fleet go but hell the country cant afford nasa or 16 ,17 other goverment agencys including the military budget, it we tossed ALL that out we might just might start to pay the intrest off the national debt    They wine about cutting 1 billon from this years budget, space for this country is dead unless the private sector can catch up sad to say.

The Enterprise was still the first orbiter prototype.  Also, it was originally intended to convert the Enterprise to spaceflight, but estimates showed it would be cheaper to convert the Structural testing prototype which became the Challenger.

[stoneyface]

when i was a kid, the space program was a major inspiration to me. i still have "get into space" on my own personal life goal list (aka bucket list) i want to get into space, even if it is just one of virgin galactic suborbital flights...

i want, i need, the space program to continue. not necessarily in nasa but just so long as it continues