Discovery...

Yesterday, Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off...she is the oldest of the three remaining shuttles and is due to be decommissioned later this year. The other two shuttles, Atlantis and Endeavour, are set to make their final flights soon and will bring to an end the 30 year program.

As someone who has lived through the history of manned space flight (I was pretty young for the first few), this is sad. In the excitement of the early days and the "race to the moon", I don't think anyone ever thought it would end. I recall my parents waking me in the night to watch the first "walk" on the moon...although we did not have HD televisions (many weren't even color) the shaky black and white images made this young girl believe that anything was possible. I remember running outside to look up...and marvel. There was the moon that God had placed in our night sky and there were men walking on it! A few years later our teachers started to tell us about NASA building space vehicles that could take off and land like an airplane! No longer would a rocket be built for one flight...they could be used time and again. How marvelous!

This is Discovery's 39th flight...she has logged 143 million miles since her first flight in 1984. She has already spent 352 days in orbit and will be up for 11 more on this trip. That will add another 4.5 million miles to her odometer! Her list of achievements is long and stellar and I, for one, will hate to see the program end. Launch Director Mike Leinbach summed it up on Wednesday..."She's been an amazing machine. She's done everything we've ever asked of her."

God Speed Discovery!