A Toast

To the good ships Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. May history record that they were stepping stones on the way to something wonderful, and not the dead end many would have you believe. Here's to their two brave crews who didn't make it home. And here's also to the dreams of a generation born just slightly too late to have witnessed the glories of Apollo; the shuttles were our spaceships. The fact that they never quite lived up to the promises we were made is disappointing, yes. But they were magnificent machines nevertheless, and they should be remembered as such...