I watched the launch of a rocket Monday afternoon and found myself smiling as it blasted off the pad and headed into space.

NASA is sending a probe to Mars. It’ll take 10 months to get there. The Maven satellite will settle into Martian orbit and send back data that is supposed to tell scientists back home on Earth about the atmosphere that surrounds the Red Planet.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/mars-mystery-tour-nasa-counts-down-maven-orbiters-launch-2D11603312

That, of course, will happen if all goes according to plan.

Why the keen interest? Well, the launch rekindled my childhood fascination with rocketry and with the notion of sending manmade objects — not to mention human beings — into outer space.

NASA has been relegated to the back burner of our national discussion. The United States no longer has an operational manned space program. NASA grounded the shuttle fleet two years ago, sending the three working space shuttles and its one prototype model to museums around the country. It sent thousands of space workers packing.

We’re still training astronauts to fly into space. They are hitching rides aboard Russian rockets — if you can imagine that — to spend time aboard the International Space Station.

I’ve long thought human beings were put on this planet to explore beyond its bounds. We’re still doing so, but now we’re doing it with unmanned vehicles, such as the Maven mission that is now en route to Mars.

The launch excited me Monday. These events usually do, especially when the communicator counts down the final 10 seconds, the engines ignite and the vehicle lifts off. I become slightly breathless as it starts to turn toward orbit and am relieved to hear the launch director declare that the vehicle has attained orbit successfully and then has launched its way toward deep space.

I keep hoping one day — before I check out — that we’ll see human beings take this journey.

Indeed, I still believe that’s one of the reasons God put us here in the first place.