NASA Launch

Because I'm a Solar System Ambassador for NASA, I got a special invite to the first post-shuttle launch. This one was for Juno, a probe headed for Jupiter. The invitation included my family, and since we're only a few hours' drive away from the Kennedy Space Center, we decided to go. Stellan had been to a shuttle launch a couple years earlier and had really liked it, so we took a chance and packed our bags.

Although it was crazy hot (Florida-in-August kind of hot), it was totally worth it. We got to skip the main entrance gate and head the VIP entrance. We saw the launch from the Saturn Center on a grassy hill instead of metal bleachers. We got cool info packets and posters. And the launch was great. It was delayed several times, each time for a few minutes, but launched about an hour after its originally scheduled time. And after the launch, we got to tour the Kennedy Space Center as NASA's guests.

We'll be keeping tabs on Juno over the next few years; it won't get to Jupiter until July 2016. The kids will be 9 and 6 by then; they'll be able to say they were there when it left Earth. Thanks, NASA!