Our boys have been very into space lately. When we were in Orlando, we picked up a couple of the new LEGO space themed sets for them. So, now they have their own space shuttle, astronaut, and astronaut van. They've been getting a lot of play around here.
Interestingly enough, our first day in Orlando coincided with the launch of Atlantis. Unfortunately, we weren't paying attention and didn't realize that until after we were there. Because of our lack of planning, and the huge traffic jam to get over there, plus the cloud cover that nearly cancelled the flight (which would have made it much harder to watch much of the launch), we decided to just watch some coverage of it on TV before going on about our merry way.
The last few days, here at home, the boys have been obsessed with the NASA channel. I guess you can watch it on the net, too, but for some reason it's part of our cable package, along with all the overseas military channels (and I do mean all of them). Oliver's been rolling his eyes a bit at it because much of what you see is shots of mission control with no sound - not the most exciting thing to have on. We have, however, been able to see interviews with the astronauts both on the shuttle and in the space station, video from the launch from all angles, including one one attached to a rocket booster that followed it all the way to splash down, and shots of the astronauts floating around doing their jobs. The boys have been fascinated by it all, and astronaut is the vocation of choice this week. Today, we caught a special they made about the shuttle program, and it was really awesome, if a bit sad, to go over the last 30 years.
With all this space stuff, I figured it would be great if we could catch the landing on Thursday. So, I looked it up this afternoon. The time its scheduled to land? 0556 bright and early. Um, yeah, not sure about that...
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Space!
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1 sonar pings:
Think of it as watching the last time an American comes down to earth as certifiable space debris though. In seriousness though, if your boys do go into aeronautics or anything space related, they'd be able to tell their coworkers and posterity "I was ____ (x years old living in the Bahamas) when I watched the last landing happened." In 20 years that will mean something to them. When you talk to people in the workplace, those type of (seemingly insignificant) life events really make an impact on what career choices they may make, how engaged they are in their field, etc. It may seem like a silly reason to wake up early, but if you want to encourage strong career planning in your boys, this might be the sort of thing to tie their childhood dreams to real events in history.
(Why do I keep posting rants at your blog? You should do whatever you darn well please, and sleep as late as you want. This is proof that no one should allow me communication methods after a 16 hour day at work!)
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