When NASA announced that the shuttle program was to be canceled, it made many people sad, but for children of the 80s, who watched shuttle launches in school, were inspired by its possibilities, and horrified by its accidents, it hit especially hard. So in April, 2011, I decided to pay tribute to the program and fulfill one of my life-long dreams of seeing the Space Shuttle launch in person.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. With just a couple of hours until I was to see what I had obsessed about for so long, NASA scrubbed the launch. I never did get to see it.