Discovery is a model of itself, a miniature, a schooner in a clear glass bottle six miles out, small even in the binocular lens yet perfect in every detail I’ve memorized. The zoom lens on my left sends its shadow from its tripod. Loudspeakers call T minus 1 minute and we all stand tiptoe in the grass. Too soon there is liftoff, a fast-forming puff of vapor and acid, flames so orange and bright we think the ship has caught fire. Then it turns, moves through the round cloud, and bursts through as a pinpoint of the brightest white light.