To the Moon

Old Wahoo loves the hoopla concerning the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's mission to the moon and "one giant leap for mankind." There's a ton of great stuff commerorating the moonshot, though two New York Times articles stood out for me. The first, written by John Noble Wilford, puts the moon launch in context while offering a glimpse into a reporter's preparations for the historic event. The second, from the Lens blog, looks back at people's reactions to the awe-inspiring launch. 

Both make me wish I was there, and I think I may go to the library to check out a DVD on the moon launch for the kids. And hopefully, Apollo 11's legacy will continue to inspire us to reach for the heavens.

Space Jinx

Our space jinx continues. 

Alex and I decided to watch the space shuttle Atlantis launch yesterday, so we made some popcorn and fired up the Internet to watch streaming video of the blastoff from NASA's online site.

Or so we thought.

The video feed remained static, despite numerous efforts to refresh the browser, and the audio never came through. Through stills on the video, we finally figured out that the shuttle had indeed taken off for its mission to repair the Hubble telescope.

Fittingly, we probably could have watched the liftoff on good, old-fashioned TV as Alex, Rob and I later watched a tape of the liftoff on Yahoo, with the video coming from ABC's cable news channel, which we receive here on AT&T U-verse.

Ah, technology. Can't live with it, can live without it.

Rocket Launch

Old Wahoo wishes he was in good ol' Virginia tonight to see this rocket launch from Wallops Island (wherever that is). Still, according to this post from Geekdad, the fire from the rocket can be seen up to 800 miles away, so maybe I'll get to see it anyway. If nothing else, it's a good story for the kids.

UPDATE: The launch was postponed until Thursday. I think I've jinxed every NASA mission this year.

UPDATE: The launch was postponed again, this time until Friday night. If anyone gets pictures, let me know.

UPDATE: Launch scrubbed Friday. According to the NASA Twitter feed, they will go sometime next week.