I wish more people would get excited over space shuttles.

I received an email from the Discovery Channel store with an offer to buy some sort of DVD and t-shirt combo commemorating the Discovery shuttle program that just ended after 39 years.  It was a nice email, but I don't really need another DVD or another t-shirt.  Instead, I'd like to see more people get excited about space shuttle launches, and re-entries, in general.

It just seems to me that people stopped caring about shuttle launches over time.  Did they forget about Challenger?  Did they even see Challenger?  Maybe I'm just too old already.  Maybe kids today expect amazing feats of technology to happen every single day and so an oversized firecracker isn't so impressive.

But I'm glad I still know people who are a little geeky about shuttle launches like I am.  When it launched, my friends in Florida were facebooking with status updates of how they could see the burning engines and billowing smoke as it raced toward the sky.  And just as of yesterday, they facebooked again to say they could hear the shuttle's sonic boom upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.  How cool is that?

Speaking of cool, have you ever tried astronaut icecream?  It's kind of gross.  Which is all the more reason why kids should try it because cool never goes out of style.  I'll just continue to hold onto hope that there are still some cool kids out there, but hopefully they don't "fold and roll" their jeans like the girl in the picture (I'm not a hater.  I used to do it too!), who are still interested in the space program.

Representatives of the Young Astronauts Council participate in a conversation with the astonauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery Mission via video hook-up, 01/24/1992