Right in My Own Backyard

Ever since second grade, I have been fascinated with the space program. I routinely wrote letters to the original astronauts, and received many photos, letters, and informational brochures from NASA. My bedroom wall was covered with all that stuff.

Tonight, Jim knew that at exactly 9:53PM the space station and space shuttle would be chasing each other through the night sky, and would cross over our backyard. The two just recently separated after being docked in space for several days. The shuttle is due to land on Thursday. Though I grumbled about missing the number two and number one AFI most popular movie clips, I went outside. We have only seen this one other time, several years ago. Sure enough, right on time the two orbiters streaked over our backyard as scheduled. It is always fun to see such large spacecraft move through the sky. They are usually easy to spot and follow, as they are really bright. I wonder how far apart they are in space? From the earth they appear to be about four inches apart. I also thought about those folks in the space station--are they confident that the computer glitch is fixed for good? (By the way, I'm sure it was a PC--the "fatal error" was a dead give away.) And do the space shuttle folks feel good that they were able to help? They have safety issues of their own, your know. Never a dull moment in space!