When I was a kid at elementary school, whenever there was a countdown me and some other boys would always scream "BLAST OFF!" and make flying noises after zero. So while I was never a big space nut I did have some interest in rockets and such.
After the Challenger disaster, the Discovery going into space seemed like a huge deal. In fact, I would have guessed it was a new spaceship if I didn't just look up its history. At my school we actually had TVs set up to watch the launch. Anytime you go to school and you don't do school stuff is already special, but it was really something watching that thing take off.
Sadly, any interest I had in space disappeared after that. I think the episode Deep Space Homer captured that perfectly. I couldn't tell you anything has happened in space except for the destruction of the Columbia and rumors that celebrities were going to orbit the planet.
So the news has recently reported that the Discovery is on its last mission. Since the country is broke and I don't see even the richest companies making a profit on commercial space flights, I don't see much space travel in the Earth's near future. Heck, from what I've gathered NASA isn't about space or science anymore.
But maybe I'm wrong. I just saw this, so maybe there's still something. I don't know. As I get older I'm not sure whether to hope for the future or lament over lost opportunity. It'd help if I knew more but I've never followed any of this. Let's just say that I'll envy the people who view space as mundane.
Good bye, Discovery, and thanks for capturing my imagination if only for a few hours at school.
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