Mood Enhancement

I watched Discovery blast off from Cape Canaveral this afternoon with beating heart and more than a tingle of pride in country.  I felt a twinge of sadness, too, as the FNC guys wouldn't let the audience forget this is Discovery's last mission and the penultimate mission for the Space Shuttle program as a whole.  Discovery has led a remarkable life, as evidenced by this article at FNC's we site.  Excerpts:

143 million: The number of miles Discovery has traveled so far, with one flight remaining. This is a distance record unmatched among NASA's space shuttle fleet. The miles traveled by Discovery could have carried it to the moon and back 288 times, or on 1 1/2 trips to the sun.

1984: The year Discovery blasted off on its maiden space voyage. Discovery's first flight was NASA's STS-41D mission, which launched on Aug. 30 carrying three communications satellites and an experimental solar array wing. The mission was commanded by astronaut Henry Hartsfield.

Dang... 1984 seems like SO long ago, doesn't it?  I guess it was a long time ago... I was still wearing the blue suit to work every day and contemplating putting in my retirement papers, which in fact I did later on that year.  And Discovery is still soldiering on.  There are many more "gee whiz" facts at that FNC link above.  Pretty danged cool.

Godspeed, Discovery.  See ya on the back side.