The final space shuttle mission is scheduled for July 8...if all goes well, weather permitting and the launch is deemed "a go."

I have friends who'll be "on board" so to speak. Nasa has a nice little program where we can upload pictures to travel right along with the shuttle.  It's called Nasa's Face in Space.

It's a cool thing...I can attest. The Weasel has already earned my "e-space cadet" chops on STS 134 by way of the Face in Space program. After the return of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, I downloaded a really cool frameable certificate that is a bonafide historical record that the face of me , Song Weasel, did indeed fly aboard the mission. :)

And let me tell you...I was with them in spirit along with my 237k of weasel pixels. I watched and listened and crossed my fingers during the launch, the mission work, and of course, the landing. I was an engaged "e-space cadet." I worried.

Space travel is not "safe" or "certain" as we have all too unfortunately learned through the tragedies of the Challenger and Columbia. It takes true bravery to get on board one of those "things."

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Okay, so one might say it's kind of silly, nostalgic, or maybe even un-hip to do something like this...but ya know what? I don't care! I love it! 

And I'm busy this afternoon, uploading pictures of all my friends' kids, so 20 years from now, they can show their kids a piece of history of which they were a tiny part perhaps, but a part nonetheless.

It is the end of an era...the beginning of a new one. Be part of it!

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And I will, as I always do, when a shuttle takes off and flies, whisper those words as I see the puffy contrail from my front porch in Orlando, Florida: 

"Godspeed to you all...Safe journey...Safe home..."