Quote Originally Posted by Bloozcat
As I was driving north to work yesterday morning along the beautiful Indian River Lagoon, something suddenly appeared out of the low clouds in the sky. It was a shiny object that glistened in the sun. Trailing it was a bright white flame and a dense bluish-green plume of smoke. As it raced along it's arc to the east, I quickly realized that it was a rocket leaving Cape Canaveral for space.

Turns out, it was the deep space probe DAWN that NASA launched towards the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It's supposed to travel over 3 billion miles before it's through, and do some detailed analysis of a couple of known asteroids in the belt.

As I was looking skyward with a big grin on my face, I noticed that no one else was even acknowledging what was happening. They were just driving along, completely wrapped up in their little worlds.

It's a shame when something as remarkable as this occurs right in our own back yard and hardly anyone notices. Such is life when these things happen on a regular basis, I guess. But I for one, will always be amazed when I see a launch. Maybe it's just the adventurer hidden away deep inside me that can't help but be excited and elated at such a marvel. And maybe it's just the kid in me that has always loved the whole idea of space travel. Either way, it was a sight to behold.
That's because most people are on autopilot and are not as romantic as us. Some people just don't snap.

I love space threads. ude: