Boom Boom

Photo Credit:  NASA/Bill Ingalls

By now you know that I love the space program so when I tell you that I was awakened this morning at 5:54 (at least according to my sleepy eyes) to a familiar boom-boom and smiled you’ll understand.  Even in my sleepy state I really did smile…one last time.  Not my last smile, but the last that I will offer in the knowledge that the space shuttle is safely home.  I am always happy to know they made it.  It’s kind of like when your kids go on a trip and they call to tell you they’ve arrived home.  It’s reassuring.  The space shuttle lands as a glider and when it passes over us down here in Florida, we often hear it break the sound barrier with a resounding BOOM BOOM, which translates as “Hey guys, we’re home.”  How cool is that!

Here is something shocking, though.  As much as I love the space program, I do not like Tang.  Of course, it is not a requirement to like Tang, and if you are really up on your space facts, you will already know that Tang was not developed by NASA.  It was popularized by them though and now it makes me sad that there won’t be hoards of little kids running around and drinking Tang while expressing a desire to be an astronaut.

I do know that William A. Mitchell is very grateful to NASA and John Glenn.  It was on a Mercury flight that John Glenn launched Tang’s popularity and it kept gaining strength through the Gemini program.  So William A. Mitchell, the inventor of Tang, is probably NASA’s biggest fan.  Just for your information, he also invented Cool Whip and Pop Rocks.  I have a feeling Kraft Foods is also a big fan of NASA and the space program.  How often do you get that kind of advertising?  Why Tang?  The water on the Mercury program tasted so bad that they decided to send up powdery mix to flavor it.  The rest is history – just like the Space Shuttle.