STS-130

Flew into Orlando last night for work and noticed that a Space Shuttle launch was scheduled to go early the next morning (Sunday @ 4:39AM EST) which was also going to be the last scheduled nighttime launch. So my FO & I rented a car and went east toward the KSC & waited with the throngs at the Astronaut Hall of Fame only to have the launch scrubbed at T minus 9 minutes due to low clouds.

Low clouds? They launch rockets through the stuff all the time but for the Shuttle the weather can affect the possibility of an emergency return should they need to. This has also caused delays when weather in FL was nice but transatlantic emergency landing sites had bad weather.

Since we're taking off in the early Sunday evening to fly back to SEA I won't get to see the attempted launch rescheduled for tomorrow morning -DOH! As the Shuttle program winds down I hope to be back with the family sometime later this year to witness history before it just becomes another page in the NASA laurels.

BTW - didn't see any mention of Lisa Marie Nowak when walking around blurry eyed this morning when at the AHoF? I think more people would've showed to hear her speak instead of some guy Bob Stringer (who last flew a shuttle mission in 1990) but my guess is that she's the Pete Rose of the astronaut program.