Spirited away by time, now to put this column away. Direct from a long technical intermission I now devote myself to finishing this. Can you believe it?

Long version or short version … short version is I took klog time off to do some intense work modeling rockets. Well it's not work in the sense that nobody paid me for it, in fact it cost me. Good thing plants continue to grow. Also, it's not modeling as in any serious computations were required, they weren't, just common desktop stuff. And although at the time I started it was only a paper rocket that wouldn't cooperate with physics, by now it's the law of the land.

See what you get if you ask me? Might as well take the long version up front and save some time. Summarize with the short version later. Oh and it's not “work” in the sense that “work is what you do when you'd rather be doing something else.” To make up – so as not to become a dull boy - I've also been having other fun in Orbiter. Most recently, inspired by recent reading I meshed the Giza complex in scale, to study it as even the craziest alien hunter never dreamed. I want to come back to that subject, and about eight thousand meters from it, soon.

Got out of the house! And took some time to see STS-131 Discovery in her fantabulously beautiful (and downright cold) dawn launch last April. Now she sits ready to leap one final time, grounded by electrical gremlins that don't want to let go the slow good-bye either. These final flights are a precious treat, how lucky those who share their sunset.

A few weeks later in Chicago came the raucous National Space Society meeting in Chicago, full of energy and drunken bluster.

And so help us all, this week we celebrate ten years of continuous human habitation in space. Every day the structure and its precious living community brings priceless lessons humanity must master before leaving launch point Earth. We must commit ourselves before the opportunity is out to secure our supply lines with the international outpost. God bless all the brave crews that have and will serve this journey we've only just begun.

Oh yeah and there are stirrings of Star Trek as well, especially the new movie (no, not that one, this one!). What I hear so far is good. No Khan. Hence no wrath. Oh and please fix the Engineering set.