In less than 20 minutes, at 11:26 ET, the space shuttle Atlantis will launch for the last time, the last time, in fact, for any shuttle. The program has lasted thirty years, most of my life. I remember the tiny Columbia shuttle model with cargo bay doors that really opened that we had, probably in 1981. I remember watching STS 8 (1983), the Challenger, rise through the sky in the first night launch for the shuttle program, only a pillar of flame visible from the school field near our house where the town gathered to watch. A few years later I watched from a desk when it exploded, shortly after take-off.

Our children have been gathered around the computer, watching the live video feed with commentary complements of CNN and NASA. They watched the close out crew in the white room, making their last checks. Just before they left, one by one the crew held up signs to the mounted video camera. I should have recorded what they wrote, but I’m sure it will be recorded somewhere. Essentially it said, “on behalf of all of the people who have worked, designed, flown, etc., for the shuttle program, Godspeed Atlantis and God bless America”. I got teary-eyed.

Because they weren’t showing the inside of mission control I pulled up the launch sequence from Apollo 13, the movie, to show them. Watching it, I almost cried again. A reminder that nothing is certain.

Lord have mercy on the astronauts, their family and friends, and the thousands and thousands of people who have worked for this moment.

Godspeed Atlantis.