[Bad Jack Bauer]

When I was a kid, like most kids, I wanted to be an astronaught. But I never outgrew it. I got into engineering in college in hopes of someday getting into the Space Program. I fell in love and got married and those dreams became just wishes and regrets of things never done. But I always wondered how it would have been. A few years ago we went on a family trip to Disneyworld and hit all the parks. Disneyworld, Epoct Center, all of them.

We got on a ride called Mars Mission or something similar, hosted by an actor I very much respect, Gary Sinse. More than a ride, it was a simulator. The most thrilling 5 minutes of my life (the most thrilling 4 minutes of my life were on my wedding night, much to my bride's disappointment), were that ride.

I remember getting off of that ride with tears in my eyes after having a taste of what could have been. I can only imagine what going up on a flight like this would be like.

[stefanbatory]

the ride is Mission Space...and it is the greatest ride at Disney IMHO...way better than GM’s test track...

[fieldmarshaldj]

"the most thrilling 4 minutes of my life were on my wedding night, much to my bride's disappointment"

You gotta pace yourself, dude. Think about baseball or something...

[altair]

When I was a kid, like most kids, I wanted to be an astronaught.

Yeah. Me too. I also wanted to be an astronaut, but the closest I ever got was in college when I worked as an intern with people at JPL who regularly got to fly in the Vomit Comet. My department head, Taylor Wang, became the first civilian to fly on the space shuttle.

The space program probably made my life. In my earliest years in school I was considered borderline retarded. I wasn't stupid, just bored with mundane things and my developed interest in the moon shots, astronomy and engineering changed my life.

Not all government spending is evil, but dang it, if it had been left to private enterprise, I would have been in space by now ... The 37,000 feet on a trans-Pacific Ocean flight will have to do, I suppose.