A few years ago my parents bought a little place on the east coast of Florida just south of Cape Canaveral in what's known as the "space coast". You know, where I Dream of Jeannie took place.

It's actually on a peninsula known as "Merritt Island" - let me say that again, a peninsula known as "Merritt Island" - which just reinforces that Florida really is part of The South.

Anyway, what with the retirement and all my folks decided to go down there for a little bit this autumn. The boring weeks of November after the World Series but before Thanksgiving. They got down there the other day.

Now, from Cocoa Beach (which is just a few minutes drive away) you can see up the coast to the Kennedy Space Center. And my Dad, being Mr. Science and all, has been dying to see a shuttle launch or a rocket launch or pretty much anything launch.

Heck, I bet he'd even be happy to see Tom Skerritt blow up on that spinny-machine from Contact. But really who wouldn't want want to see Tom Skerritt blow up?

Anyway so far NASA's schedule and my parents' time off hasn't jived, even though there have been close calls. A shuttle launched a few days before they arrived one year, I believe, and once it was a few days after they left.

But on Saturday night there was a rocket launch from the Space Center, and they were going to check it out.

I haven't heard from them yet, but I read an article that said it took off at 8:50 pm.

The cool thing is that this was the first successful launch of the new Delta IV-Heavy rocket, which is 23 stories tall and weighs 1.6 million pounds.

The un-cool thing? It launched the 23rd and final Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite 22,300 miles above earth.

The DSP satellites provide early warning of ballistic missile launches aimed at the United States and its allies - let me say that again, early warning of ballistic missile launches aimed at the United States.

Obviously the program was designed 37 years ago when we all thought the USSR was going to start WWIII by lobbing intercontinental missiles at Hutchinson, Kansas.

Now if these satellites could only detect IEDs on the sides of roads in rural Iraq maybe some American lives could really be saved ...