The Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 11:29am EST on July 8th. This will be the last mission of the space shuttle fleet. They are being retired.
This also marks the end of American manned space flight, at least on American space craft. There is no replacement for the shuttle in the works, at least not coming out o NASA. There are a number of private ventures working on replacements for the shuttle fleet, but I don’t hold out much hope for them at the moment.
I was born at the dawn of the Space Race. ((Yes, I’m dating myself, I know)) I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon and blow his most famous line. It wasn’t supposed to be:
This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
It was supposed to be:
This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
Neil dropped the “a” in the first part of his announcement. To this day he doesn’t recall the missing “a”.
I watched the first shuttle, the Enterprise roll out and go through the test runs. I remember what I was doing when the Challenger exploded and where I was when Columbia burned up on reentry.
Now it is ending.
President Obama has all but shut down any future for Americans in space. The next great leap was supposed to be a return to the moon, but that has been essentially canceled. In point of fact, since the 1970’s the Democrats and a few Republicans have hated spending money on space exploration. They would rather waste it on welfare and pork barrel projects.
So blind, so stupid.
All those brave men and women who died for the future, I salute you!
Apollo 1
United States Gus Grissom
United States Edward White II
United States Roger Chaffee
Space Shuttle Challenger
United States Greg Jarvis
United States Christa McAuliffe
United States Ronald McNair
United States Ellison Onizuka
United States Judith Resnik
United States Michael J. Smith
United States Dick Scobee
Space Shuttle Columbia
United States Rick D. Husband
United States William McCool
United States Michael P. Anderson
United States David M. Brown
United States-India Kalpana Chawla
United States Laurel B. Clark
Israel Ilan Ramon
And to all the others lost in training accidents.
~The Angry Systems Administrator~
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The History of the Space Shuttle | Crack Two
From its first launch 30 years ago to its final launch , NASA’s Space Shuttle program has seen moments of dizzying inspiration and of crushing disappointment. When next week’s launch is complete, the program will have sent up 135 …
http://www.cracktwo.com/ — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:19:00 -0700
Final space connection: Atlantis docks at station
In a flight full of passion, Atlantis made the final docking in shuttle history Sunday, pulling up at the International Space…
http://www.mail.com/?domain=dbzmail.com — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:00:00 -0700
Atlantis docks at space station on last mission | News Network
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – U.S. space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday to deliver a last batch of supplies to the orbiting outpost on the final flight of the U.S. shuttle program. …
http://news.tradingedgemaster.com/ — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:35:17 -0700
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