I've found my own kind!

Shortly after midnight last night (while I was still thawing out from two hours of astronomy too close to the damp Atlantic in April), I was wandering around TweetDeck when I stumbled across the Space Tweep Society!  Oh my goodness, people!  It's my lost tribe!

"The Space Tweep Society is a group of space enthusiasts on Twitter from a variety of backgrounds. Our ranks include NASA and other space program employees, astronomers, journalists, astrophysicists, scientists, educators, and space geeks. Our mission is to promote enthusiasm for all things space and to unite those inside the space industry with those who are outside looking in."

Yes, these are most definitely "my people."  And it's a good thing I've found them, because a) I sometimes worry that Phil the Space Prof will get sick of my endless questions (because he's the only one I know around here to talk space stuff with), and b) my husband may not be speaking with me after this morning.  I suspect he's secretly longing for the end of the shuttle program so he no longer wakes up on his days off to the sounds of NASA-TV in the bedroom at 6 AM!

Yes, I was definitely annoying.  I'll admit it.  As I was toddling off to bed at about 2 AM, I noticed that NASA-TV was showing crews walking around the launch pad.  Since I'd never seen that sort of pre-launch activity before, I was utterly fascinated and couldn't turn it off.  Four hours later the alarm on my cell phone went off so I could watch the 90 minutes before lift-off.  (Sometimes I'm really unsure why he puts up with me.  Maybe his new mantra is "three more launches ... three more launches ..." and that's all that's getting him through.)

So STS-131 lifted off at 7:21 ADT -- the second-last planned launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.  The launch was spectacular -- I was surprised and pleased to see that it was still dark in Florida when the Sun was already up here.

I really, really need to see a shuttle launch in person, before there are no more launches left.  (The wheels are turning...)