A dream coming true on the Space Coast of Florida.TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- There's a Florida connection among the Astronaut Corps on the shuttle Friday night.
Shane Kimbrough said he hopes some young person watching the shuttle Endeavour take off on Friday will be as inspired as he was.
Kimbrough is 41. He's about to strap into the space shuttle Endeavour for his first flight into space.
As a boy, he said some of his earliest memories are of visiting his grandparents' home in Titusville and watching his heroes head for the final frontier.
Son of a lieutenant colonel, Kimbrough won an appointment to West Point. He was captain of the baseball team, but he said the memories of the Space Coast never left him.
He became an Army aviator, served in Desert Storm and, shortly after that, met an astronaut who also served in the Army.
He said his memory of the Space Coast returned and inspired him, again.
"After that, I was all about becoming an astronaut," Kimbrough said.
Now, in the quiet of a prelaunch night, he said he can reflect on his chance to write some history, to accept some of the risk and to inspire someone else.
On a Friday night, with only 10 more chances to see a shuttle lift off, there should be a lot of people out there standing across the water to cheer him on.
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As a boy, he said some of his earliest memories are of visiting his grandparents' home in Titusville and watching his heroes head for the final frontier.
Son of a lieutenant colonel, Kimbrough won an appointment to West Point. He was captain of the baseball team, but he said the memories of the Space Coast never left him.
He became an Army aviator, served in Desert Storm and, shortly after that, met an astronaut who also served in the Army.
He said his memory of the Space Coast returned and inspired him, again.
"After that, I was all about becoming an astronaut," Kimbrough said.
Now, in the quiet of a prelaunch night, he said he can reflect on his chance to write some history, to accept some of the risk and to inspire someone else.
On a Friday night, with only 10 more chances to see a shuttle lift off, there should be a lot of people out there standing across the water to cheer him on.
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