8 July 2011 STS-135 -- One Small Launch...
Channel: wiredg2
Date: 10/07/2011

That's One Small Launch for NASA...One Giant Bookend for a Boy and his Father! I attended STS-1, when Columbia landed in California. It was natural to want to attend the last flight, of Atlantis, on the STS-135 mission. I wanted my 5-year old son, Max, to some day be able to say that he actually saw a shuttle launch with his own eyes. He was not allowed to attend the Atlantis launch, the Final Launch, of all time. So I cooked up a scheme to have Max rocket into space right with the Atlantis crew. Unlike my hero, Neil Armstrong, I totally ad-libbed my line for such a historic occasion, but I also did NOT flub it! ;-) If you look closely, Atlantis comes back into view towards the end of this short video, after disappearing in the clouds. The token that "flies" into orbit was the best present I've ever gotten, my Father's Day gift from 2009, when my son was only three. Ad Astra Per Maximilian!