Here's a random fact I picked up from the Astronomy Picture of the Day site:
In 2009, rockets bound for space were launched from somewhere on Earth about once a week. That's pretty amazing. The schedule for 2010 is here.
In July, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Sometime following that (maybe Apollo 12 in November), my elementary school called all classes into the cafeteria so we could watch a rocket launch on a black and white TV up on stage. I would have been in the 3rd grade.
Above is a launch picture of the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifting off to visit the International Space Station in 2001. Below is the video of that launch and the return to earth of the solid-fuel booster rockets.
