Twas the morning of STS-114

It's 02:34.
I'm about to go to sleep.
I check the news to see if anything has come out to delay launch.
Nope. Nothing.

So I read little of the relating articles before checking out the countdown clock.
6 hrs 22 mins and some seconds right now.

I had read again about the built-in time holds and what happens during each, and for how long they last. While the clock says 6 hrs... that doesn't mean we launch at 8am... with the numerous built-in time holds, it'll be right around 2:51 pm... basically about 12 hrs from now, we go back to space.

has it been that long? it seems so long ago on a saturday morning, i woke up early after working the previous supporting shift...talking with my console op looking overhead watching for a shuttle that would never land. how we were lost that morning. how we had a changed view of things then. and now years later, here we are.

so here we are.
so many hopes and dreams this morning. this day.
the climax of what so many people from so many places have walked towards, giving of themselves, their time and knowledge and skills...big or small.
here we are.

that one-hit wonder song may sound cheesy...but it's appropriate...
we got knocked down. but we got up again. nobody going to keep us down.

Godspeed, Discovery.
Take us back to space.