Space Shuttle

I'm currently weighing up the possibility of going to see one of the last ever Space Shuttle launches next year. I've been interested in space, and the Shuttle in particular, since I was a little kid, wandering down to the library with my Mum and almost always coming back with at least one book on the subject.

That interest persisted right up until I got to sixth form college and then it died out, being replaced by any number of things, from studies to becoming a Christian. However, in the last year or so my interest in the space programme and the shuttle has returned with avengeance. I suspect it has much to do with going to the US and actually seeing, first hand, some of the amazing (and tiny) spacecraft that were involved in the great space project.

Standing looking at and touching some of these space craft is amazing. Craning your neck skywards to examine the top of a full blown rocket gives you a real sense of just how crazy the early astronauts were to sit on top of what was essentially a giant firework. Yet, you don't get the experience of seeing, hearing and experiencing the launch. Even watching it on tv or youtube, its all dulled down by the limits of technology.

With that in mind i'd love to go to Florida next year and actually see the Shuttle lift off. Hear and see it in real life, in real time. I'd like to do it even more because next year marks the end of the Space Shuttle programme. Whatever follows (If something follows - Mr Obama is proving a little illusive on whether America will develop a new manned space programme) could be many, many years in the making, and this seems like one of the last opportunities to go and see something trully unique and spectacular - if you are a geek!