This morning, my girls and I watched the final launch of Atlantis.
It occurred to me that they will never understand space exploration quite like the generation before them.
Thirty years ago, it was different.
There was an intense excitement when a launch was scheduled. School aged children would anxiously await a launch while seated cross legged in front of classroom television sets. Many hours of teaching, reading and research had already taken place. Boys' and girls' minds would be consumed with space and the shuttle launch. Children had invested their time and energy and felt like they were a part of the NASA team.
Maybe I'm the only one that thinks its not like it used to be.
Maybe its become too common place.
Maybe the sci-fi Hollywood creations have made real life space exploration seem small.

Earlier this year, we were in the Cape Canaveral area for the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Although 25 years had passed, it made me shudder to see the catastrophic launch replayed on television. It brought tears to my eyes again. I felt as though I was reliving the day that it happened, when I was just a young girl in elementary school.
With tears streaming down my cheeks, I glanced at my oldest daughter. I saw concern in her face but I could tell that she didn't grasp the full effect of the explosion, not in the way that my husband and I had as children.
I struggled to find a way to explain its effects. I told her that we saw the video footage played over and over again on TV over the coming months, much like she had seen footage from the 9/11 attacks or the footage from Hurricane Katrina. I tried to explain that this was a disaster that ripped our nation, that tested our vision as a country. We were so excited to see the launch go up, with a teacher on board to boot only to be devastated 73 seconds later. It caused us to question what we were doing in space anyway. 
You see, back then leading space exploration was just one part of leading the world, of being the world Superpower.  What is it about today? Are we still exploring the last frontier? Have we become complacent as a nation? Do these launches matter to our society?

I was disappointed at the lack of buzz on social networks this morning. I wondered if my girls and I were the only ones watching the launch. If Twitter and Facebook had been around in the eighties, it would have been flooded with Tweets and status updates about the day's launch.  Today, I saw only one.
Why have we tired of this great phenomenon?  Has it faded into history like so many eras before it?
How can we preserve the excitement of that era and inspire our children with it? How can we ever make them feel the impact of space exploration in the way that we did?

With today's launch being the last one that our nation will see for several years, if at all I wonder if our children will ever understand.

To all the heroes that have taught us so much and to the families that have sacrificed their loved ones, I thank you. It was an extraordinary era.