The Last Rocket Show

It's about bucket lists and a yearn to see the Space Shuttle fly before it's too late. It's about growing up terrified in a roiling Cold War. It's about chasing Sputnik down with boyhood rockets.It's about disheveled students, the ones with two pocket protectors and zero girlfriends; the amateur radio freaks; the wild-eyed neighborhood rocket launchers. We would call them "nerds" today, but in the 1950s, they wore the label "introverts." It was handled as a disease; a condition to be corrected.They were an uncounted, unnoticed generation; their diverse curiosities calling them to self-educate for a challenge yet undefined. But they were disorganized, rudderless; a solution in search of a problem.So when John Kennedy made his call, they were ready.I have been watching the incredible NASA show for near a lifetime, now ... an epic saga extracted from dreams, bolstered by bravery, tempered with tears. In my overactive mind, I have erected a rickety structure of opinions about all of this. Read about them here ... And then, together, we'll watch the The Last Rocket Show.[Includes dozens of author photos and two original videos]