Thousands gather for Pride parade in downtown Toronto

The Stars and Stripes on the flagpole at the front of the Johnson Space Center is enormous, as you’d expect from a major American institution. I had been at Johnson for a couple of days, as a reporter covering the shuttle flight of Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean, and I remember being struck by the sheer size of the place – some 100 buildings on more than 1,600 acres of land.