The Cupola is Open

Just a little over an hour ago, I wept floodbuckets at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Cupola. Jeff and George dedicated the new window, placed the Apollo moon rocks on board and cut the bright red ribbon announcing that the Cupola was officially open. As Zambo so aptly put it, "mankind has been pursuing that view for centuries." I loved Hal Getzelman's speech so much that I have to put the entire thing here and yes Hal, I noticed that you have been wearing your yellow STS-130 Terry Virts wristband every night at console. Thanks for the tremendous speech. "We weren't around in Promotory, UT to drive in the final spike on the trans-continental railroad, none of us were there when they switched on the dynamos at the Hoover Dam, and we weren't around when they topped out the steel on the Empire State Building, but I think I speak for the whole flight control team in Houston and the flight control teams around the world, that we are really pleased to be working these last 2 weeks when we attached the final module to the US segment of the one million pound space station that was built by thousands of people around the world. We only wish we could be up there with you now."