What was your childhood ambition? Did you want to be a teacher, a train driver or a movie star? Like most people, my life turned out differently to how I imagined it would be (I wanted to be a lollipop lady), and if you were one of the millions of kids with starry-eyed ambitions to be an astronaut, you may have been particularly excited and a touch nostalgic to hear that a spectacular launch of the space shuttle Endeavour took place on Wednesday evening.
The Endeavour, which last flew before the Columbia disaster in 2003, launched successfully from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida last night and will carry its passengers on an 11-14 day mission to the International Space Station. The astronauts will take part in a number of six-hour spacewalks to carry out construction work on the structure using a robotic arm and, presumably, nerves of steel. If you’re envious that these men and women managed to make their childhood ambition of space travel a reality, don’t forget that their line of work involves not just skill, but a great deal of courage.
Get the Kennedy Space Centre NavPix here…
Comments