Ariane 5 Rocket launch

Nate Cantor has been working for a couple of years as an aerospace engineer. The first satellite he worked on was launched yesterday on an Ariane 5 from French Guiana in South America.

He was a member of a team that designed a Japanese-owned satellite called JCSAT-13 which is used for broadcast and telecommunications over Japan.

Nate, who is my son, worked on the hardware that holds the antenna that beams signals back to earth.

I was able to watch the launch live via the internet and it was thrilling…the countdown in French, the eruption of the giant engines, and the night lift-off through the clouds. In three minutes, it was into space.

My take-away is that space travel is not just for governments, but it is becoming more and more a commercial business. The New York Times had an article on this subject yesterday, as well.