We hardly knew ye

The talking heads are chiding North Korea for having a failed rocket launch last week.  They were supposedly attempting to launch a weather satellite, but we all know it was essentially a missile test.

At any rate, it broke apart 90 seconds after launch and fell into the Yellow Sea.  But the sad irony is, we forgot to look in the mirror before poking fun at NK's misfortune.  We don't currently possess a space vehicle capable of orbital flight at this point.  NASA's budget has been gutted and the Shuttle program mothballed.

We had one last look at a shuttle in flight today, as NASA transported the Discovery to the Smithsonian's original Air & Space Museum.  It did so on the back of its specially modified Boeing 747.  Quite the sight to see as it made a flyover of DC before landing at Dulles.  Farewell, old friend.  Here's to better days...