Endeavor

Tate has been waiting for Endeavor's launch since April 29, the original launch date. I was excited for him to go to the watch party at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. I knew his reaction would be priceless. I was a little sad because the plan was for me to drop him off to Mimi, at the Cosmosphere, on my way to work. I don't know if it was good luck or bad luck, but when I went to start my car, the battery was dead! The back hatch had been popped all weekend-- oops! My mom came to pick us up and we made it with about T-minus 10 minutes to spare.
The viewing was in the Discovery Room upstairs. It was really neat. They had a big screen set up and two TVs on either side. There were replicas of satellites and the Discovery Space Shuttle hanging from the ceiling. The stage below the TVs looked like a model of the International Space Station. There was even an astronaut in a full space suit. I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of it. Probably because I was anticipating capturing these:

 They were announcing the names of the astronauts. "Six astronauts, Mommy!"

 Listening to the final countdown.

 We have lift off!

Waiting for the solid rocket boosters to fall away.

After that he was bored and ready to go visit his favorite parts of the museum.

The reporter/ photographer from the Hutchinson News said the first thing she heard when she walked into the room was an excited little voice shouting about a satellite. The Public Relations and Events Coordinator, Patsy Terrell, is a friend of the family and directed her to the little voice. The photographer took a ton of pictures of Tate, but he wouldn't share his space knowledge with her. He was really excited to see himself in the newspaper this morning!
Patsy also directed a local television videographer to Tate. Unfortunately, he was too shy to talk to him too. We missed the only news cast that showed Tate for a brief second. My neighbor called me to confirm it was actually him that she saw. Luckily, we  were able to catch the replay online. After he saw himself, he was disappointed that he didn't talk to the man with the big camera. He told me, "Next time, mommy."

In case you missed the launch, here is the video from NASA.gov. We get NASA TV on our satellite, so I recorded it for Tate to watch... multiple times. In the mornings, he usually gets to watch 30 minutes of TV, for the day. I have Thomas the Train, Sesame Street and Bob the Builder saved on the DVR. This morning, he wasn't interested in any of that. He wanted to watch live coverage of the Endeavor mission. If you feel so inclined, you can watch it online too. It's riveting! (That's sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell.) I will probably record it early tomorrow morning, so we can watch Endeavor dock with the International Space Station. It is sad that there is only one launch left and then the space shuttle program comes to an end. Truly the end of an era.