Science fiction and space exploration!

I heart NASA, and NASA hearts me back.
I just watched Obama’s speech livestreaming from whitehouse.gov, on the new plan for NASA. He talked about how space travel and exploration as an ambition is an essential part of the American character.
I remember as a kid always wanting to go see a launch live. I settled for watching lots of them on TV. I remember the first test flight where they took the Space Shuttle on top of a 747 piggyback. As a young, solitary trekkie I thought calling it “Enterprise” was really fitting and cool.
And of course, I always wanted to grow up to be a science fiction writer.
I still haven’t seen a launch, but I will be going this summer to attend NASA’s LAUNCH PAD workshop for science fiction writers and editors, in Laramie, WY. This is basically a crash course in astronomy for science fiction writers and editors so that we can “get it right.” It’ll be a week at the U. of Wyoming with nights at the telescope, planetarium, etc, with daytime lectures in astronomy. I’m soooo excited! It’ll be in mid-July and I’m rather psyched.
My life has already seen such vast leaps in our knowledge, Voyager, Hubble, Mars rover, etc… What’s next?