I'm getting a little verklempt

I'm a pretty emotional -- or at least expressive -- guy, except when it comes to tears. There aren't many things that move me to water, but those that do get me almost every time.

This morning at 8:39 MDT I was moved to tears of joy.
NASA/KSC
NASA has successfully put mankind in space again. I almost said "men", but of course the Commander of this mission (STS-114) is a woman! I can remember being in preschool when Sally Ride became the first woman astronaut; she first flew on Challenger, the 7th shuttle mission over all (obviously, she was not on STS-51L, the fated Challenger flight in 1986).

When the Mrs. and I watched Armageddon, I teared up when they launched. The movie was terrible as SciFi goes, but nevertheless they were launching on space shuttles (or something like them), and that always does it for me.

I'll never forget turning on the TV on Saturday morning, Feb 1, 2003 as I was getting dressed for my 3rd CIT Alumni baseball game, only to lose all feeling in my legs. I called to Chan that something was wrong, to come here; I didn't know what it was, but it was bad. The image on TV was live, yet there was no sound, no speaking, nothing, just the American flag waving at half-mast with some sort of body of water behind it. I would later learn that this was the flag outside of mission control; this was how NASA confirmed the suspicion that Columbia was gone. No press conference, no emergency calls; someone just came outside and lowered the flag.