Pity you missed out on the Space Shuttle, on one occasion I sneaked through NASA security for a front row experience, at 3 miles the shock waves almost took me off my feet and made it difficult to breath, captured some fabulous photo's too. But a 6.9 on the Richter scale earthquake experience wins hands down in sheer Awesomeness. I have been struck by lightening on three occasions and the second one of those is probably my most Awesome experience so far, coincidentally, that lasted around 4 seconds too, however, I am hoping not to try a fourth time.