Happy Contrails to You

Yesterday morning I was up at 3:30 AM to be a guest at the WISE launch by NASA. An impressive Delta II rocket, shown in video below, sent the unmanned satellite carrying an infrared-sensitive telescope that will image the entire sky into orbit. In the days leading up to the event, the launch had been scrubbed several times, so I frequently found myself checking the NASA launch app for the iPhone to see when the next launch window was scheduled. As an application for the iPhone, it actually doesn't do much with the iPhone's capability, and the content on the app is largely pulled from the web. An app that might tell astronomy enthusiasts when objects might be hurtling in the sky overhead and perhaps viewable might have much more functionality.