Crowd Control To Major Tom

I hear there is something big happening across the pond. While getting lost in details of the royal wedding is a good form of escape for most, there is something much more exciting and distinctly American happening right in my backyard.

David Burnett, via Time Magazine

The second to last shuttle launch is happening tomorrow. Titusville is expecting crowds in upwards of 750,000 people...a lot for a town where rush hour means getting stuck behind an old lady driving to Wal-Mart. Okay, so it's a little busier than that. Three old ladies and a minivan, maybe.

I can't help but imagine what it was like in this area's heyday, when astronauts were viewed as rock stars. With a little assistance from the Northern Brevard Historical Society's Flickr page and the NASA Commons, I'm back 42 years in a pair of cat eye sunglasses, it's hot as hell in my weather-innapropriate clothing, and the hairspray keeping my hair set has allowed the Apollo 11 crew to have easier access out of the Earth's atmosphere.

Doesn't Lady Bird look so hip? I could easily see her model in an Etsy listing.

Here's to the Endeavour launch tomorrow, and to sneaking out of Titusville early so I can avoid the post-launch traffic nightmare and watch it take off from a distance with my husband.