Last night, at the awesome double-birthday party, people were actually talking about the Space Shuttle, and its launch. The rumors were flying about the crack in the insulation around the oxygen (the liquid oxygen fuel tank?), and this afternoon said that one engineer and somebody else didn’t give it a Go.

Whatever actually happened, the Space Shuttle Discovery, on flight designated STS-121, successfully launched. Right now, it’s over the southern Indian Ocean. The international space station, its destination, is over southern Europe.

It’s in space. It’s up, and it’s going. Flawless launch, they said. I’m actually watching NASA TV in a browser window, thanks to a reminder from . We can do this, and some of our smartest say that we have to do it.