It's my 19th birthday tomorrow, but I won't be around to celebrate as I will be going to Florida for holidays tomorrow.
Also, yesterday I met an old friend who I hadn't seen in about two years, at a party. Apparently in the intervening time he had come out as gay. Then another friend who I hadn't seen for a year since he moved to Australia showed up. We had a pretty good time.
You lucky dog you. Will you be attending the final space shuttle launch at the Kennedy Space Center?
I remember when the gate class took a field trip to a space simulator. We got to pretend we were in a rocket. I was on of the people who helped fly it. I got to set up the cameras and such, and I got to click the button on the countdown.
Of course, during the countdown, I clicked the launch button on 9. It was fun.
Space shuttle Atlantis will have the privilege to be the final shuttle to launch and mark the end of the Space Shuttle Program when it lands back on Earth on July 20, and to tell you the truth, im sad to see the shuttle retire. It's a great spacecraft.
Also, Happy Birthday to you too, TJB!
The Russian Soyuz will serve as the primary spacecraft for (re)supplying and taking astronauts to the International Space Station until NASA has completed developing the successor to the space shuttle.
Happy birthday TJB.
And to add to what Atom said, a few commercial initiatives are looking very promising. They can probably carry bigger payloads at a cheaper price to LEO. In that regard the space shuttle kinda missed its mark due to changing goals when it was completed. There is a reason the Russians gutted the Buran's(Three of em, 1 flew without humans) in the middle of the program.