Up, up, and away...

Up early this morning - teenage son has a grown-up sleep-over to play computer games and D&D, so the house is full of noisy teenagers.

Now I discover that the next Spacex launch (Iridium 5 with 10 Iridium NEXT satellites) is scheduled for tonight (30th March @ 14:13:51 UTC), so I won't be going to bed early to compensate.

I remember watching the grainy black & white images of Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin setting foot on Earth's moon way back in 1969. It was at my grandparents' house, as they were the only ones we knew that owned a TV, and it was over the road from the school. The whole class trooped over to watch, although not all were actually interested.

Now Spacex and other private concerns are bringing the space-faring future that first landing seemed to promise.

How I wish that I had been born 30 years later.

Edit:
OK, so I watched the launch - right up to the point where the Spacex talking head said that the stream  had to end due to NOAA restrictions.

What a crock! Why on off Earth would NOAA have any say on the matter?

The Reddit channel guys are saying that they believe it is a pissing match between Spacex and NOAA because the rocket guys didn't ask nicely for a permit from the government guys to allow them to observe the Earth from space.

It's exactly this sort of fuckery that has the potential to strangle commercial space exploitation in its infancy. Penalty flag against NOAA for appalling behaviour, and I award you no points.