Final Flight

Posted by Karen on Sep 21, 2012 | 1 comment

There were well over a thousand people gathered at Edwards AFB to witness the historic final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. This is the youngest of the space shuttles, having replaced Challenger after its demise in 1986.

Our space program has always fascinated me. Back in the day, my father was a research chemist for NASA, and part of the team that developed the heat shield for the original Skylab. The Space Shuttle era has certainly enjoyed an impressive run.

Consider Endeavour’s stats: 25 space missions totaling 299 days, logging 123 million miles as it orbited the earth nearly 4,700 times! Yet its retirement has come relatively early, and now the California Science Center will have the bragging rights to being Endeavour’s final home.

Such a momentous occasion should cause anyone to contemplate one’s own “final flight.” You may be one whose life has “taken to the skies”; fueled with high-octane made especially for rockets. You may have flown 1,000 notable missions, leaving an extraordinary vapor trail upon re-entry. Yet the day will come — and perhaps sooner than you ever expected — when your life on earth will be “retired.”

So there’s really only one question that needs to be answered while you’re still “in flight”…

Where will your final residence be?