Author's Note: These poems, too, have the dubious distinction of having once been rejected by Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, and are most definitely under copyright. If you wish to do anything with them, you must ask my permission (via email, vze3b4pq ) — though unless you intend to publish them under your own name, you may rest assured of receiving said permission.

This sequence was born of a fascination with the Shuttle that began with watching that first trial flight on a black-and-white television set at around the same time that I became aware that the Heroic could be embodied as easily and well in tales of far-flung futures as in the ancient and far-off past, at a time when science and science fiction alike were deemed dead and technology in the popular media was limited exclusively to automobiles. Its catalyst was the popular response and also, in part, the artifact and the public event of the film "Apollo 13".

It was once remarked on Usenet that all Bill Gates' billions were worthless, since they yet would not serve to purchase him the working, real, (not the prop version) Millenium Falcon. These sonnets reflect the observations and responses, afterwards, to six shuttle launches by someone who is also waiting for the discovery of hyperspace travel...