This is a picture I took of the launch of the Shuttle Atlantis a few weeks ago. I was on the ship that was getting ready to take us to the Bahamas, so I got a pretty good view over the ocean before we left.

This morning as I was getting another cup of tea and trying to wake up, Boom! The sonic boom hit. My house is about 50 or 60 miles from KSCU, but of course, as the shuttle enters the atmosphere, it flies over us, so that’s why I heard it at such a distance. Needles to say, I was awake after my whole house shook!

This may be the last flight for the Atlantis, and there are only two more possible launches for the other shuttles after this one. I was raised a “rocket girl” so to speak since my dad is ex-NASA, and my first job out of grad school was as a technical writer for Lockheed. It’s in my blood.

Though the Space Shuttle program has been finishing up for some years now and the new administration is not to blame for this, its attitude towards the space program in general is really disappointing. I have already lamented about this on here before (see “It’s the Economy, Stupid“), so I won’t rehash it. But just remember this day, folks, years from now when you look back and realize how the space program started to erode. This is just the beginning to a sad, sad future for the US space industry and the nation.