When I was a wee lad, my mother would roust me out of bed at oh-dark-thirty and sit me in front of our black-and-white television so that I could see, with my own eyes, history being made. Being not only a second or third grader, but also half asleep, I don’t recall which specific Mercury launches I saw, but I am fairly certain I saw John Glenn’s Freedom 7 launch.

When a buddy stayed over o...