I remember thinking how cool the shuttles were back in elementary school. Here’s hoping US manned space travel can get to the next vehicle quickly*.
Nice photo of Atlantis’ last reentry.
*Relatively quickly that is, which for a space program, is not usually very quick.
So long Space Shuttle, you were a true icon of the 80s, and always a spectacle throughout my life.
And I never got to see a launch in person. Bummer.
From Neil deGrasse Tyson’s twitter account:
Lament not the shuttle’s end, but the absence of rockets to supplant it. Who shed a tear when Gemini ended? Apollo awaited us
It is a little depressing, especially with our current economic state, it’ll be all the more likely that NASA gets more funding cuts as they become less visible, making their next space missions take that much longer.
I’ve heard the $63 million per astronaut figure quoted lately, to send up one of our guys in a Russian craft. (What happened to the $20 million per ride that the space tourists were paying? Inflation? US Gov’t has poor bargaining skills?)
Here’s hoping that it’s just a little downtime and not Game Over for the space program.
I’m sad too.
The Bad Astronomer posted a video compilation of all the shuttle missions on his blog. Several of his latest entries have Shuttle-related pictures. Also, TheBig Picture has a collection of pictures of the last mission.