On September 20th, 2012, the shuttle Endeavour was on it’s last flight, so to speak. This time it was not in space, but low flight over the Southwest on it’s swan song tour before being put in a museum. Terrible ending for a great spacecraft. Just looking at images of it, it needs to be in flight. But a musuem is better than the aircraft boneyard outside Tucson, Arizona. Google it if you want, and look at the images of thousands of grounded planes turning to dust.
The irony of this flight was a couple of spectators on the grounds of the University of Arizona in Tucson, watching and waving. These spectators were former astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife, Gabrielle Giffords. Look at the picture of them, her excited and waving, him watching. With that ball cap and shades, he still looks like an aviator. Kelly was the last commander of the Endeavour.
I don’t know about you, but when I sell a car and watch it drive off with the new owner, visions of the good times I had in that car and the part of you that is in that auto go flashing through my head.
So, here is the astronaut watching his spacecraft flying overhead, without him, and I would bet part of him is really missing it. I would.