44. 9/6/2013 - LADEE Launch. Wait, what's a rocket launch doing in a cancer retrospective?

I spent the previous few years working on one of the payloads aboard the LADEE spacecraft bound for the moon. The launch was scheduled that evening in Virginia and Hattie's blood counts looked good so I zipped down the eastern seaboard to meet colleagues and watch.

We all celebrated as the launch proceeded without a hitch... now we had a month to wait as the spacecraft took its strange trip to the moon before operations began.

But operations could wait. Cancer could wait. For one night, I reveled in boyish glee at the wonder of gigantic explosions and scientific frontiers.