...what the Shuttle astronauts had for lunch? I guess it's good, because it means it must be a slow news day (i.e., everything is going smoothly for a 6:36 PM launch).

I'm still trying to decide whether or not to drive up. I'll have to leave within a couple hours if I'm going to make it. Patricia is working up in Orlando today, so the problem of finding a parking/viewing location is compounded by the need to meet up somewhere.

[Update a little before 3 PM]

I'm having a gumption shortage. I can't get sufficiently enthused to sit in a car for several hours today, when I've got so much stuff to do around here. So I'll see if I can see it from down here.

Perhaps they're just trying to reassure us that it wasn't Val-U-Rite Vodka and Tang.

Val-U-Rite Vodka and Tang.

Ahhh...the breakfast of champions!

Nor to I care about what music was played to wake them up in the morning when they're up in space. That's just wasted airtime.

How about the tiring mini speeches on lift off...

"3..2..1 and Lift off!! Lift off of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on a mission of continuing blah blah blah...."

Rand, saw the launch on CSPAN.... and is it just me or was there a longer-than-usual delay between the ignition of the shuttle's main engines and the SRBs? Or maybe the NASA announcer got ahead of himself... it seemed when he got to "zero" it was a looonggg time before seeing the SRBs light off.

Brendan, I was watching on HDNet and I didn't notice any such delay.

Hey, maybe the Shuttle program can do something about the deer problem, too. Bambi burgers for everyone!

Rand, I am in complete agreement with you regarding the trivial PR chatter on these shuttle flights. NASA's PR people seem stuck in a '60s time warp where people are so starved for news about the space program that they care about the brand of peanut butter available for a mid-morning snack. Spaceflight is relatively routine now (Rocketing to Mach 25 on top of a tank of cryogenic propellants is extraordinary, but you know what I mean...) and it's time for NASA to face the fact that while Lindberg's crossing of the Atlantic in 1927 was headline news around the world, the airline pilots who did the same thing 10 years later weren't household names, nor did anybody care what they ate for breakfast prior to their flights. Maybe it's time to cut back on the PR crap and focus on communicating technical results like the old NACA.