America Ends Its Space Shuttle Program and Era in Space … Atlantis Lands at Kennedy Space Center for Last Time
MISSION NO MORE …THE END OF AN ERA.
After 135 flights in a predawn landing at 5:57 am, the space shuttle Atlantis touched down at the Kennedy Space Center for the very last time and thus ended a three decade era of space shuttle flight. It is hard to believe that the shuttle flights have come to an end, I can remember when it all first began and we were allowed to watch in school as the shuttle program first began. What is even harder to believe is that NASA really has no immediate transition into the next approach to space flight.
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Greats pics at the UK Daily Mail.
“Mission complete, Houston,” said Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson of the Navy, commander of the shuttle Atlantis for the last flight. “Afterserving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history, and it’s come to a final stop.”
It was the 19th night landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to end the 135th space shuttle mission. For Atlantis, the final tally of its 26-year career: 33 missions, accumulating just short of 126 million miles during 307 days in space.
“Having fired the imagination of a generation … its voyage at an end”. So what next for today’s generation to fire its imagination? It’ peaks volumes, doesn’t it? What is the future of manned space flight in the US? Sadly, it means even more individuals losing their jobs, but what is new for this Administration.
A special thanks to all that took part in the US Space Shuttle program, a job well done and God Bless those members of the Space Shuttle Challenger Columbia and Challenger.
Remember when this Democrat President challenged America to space travel … “WE CHOOSE TO GO TO THE MOON”. JFK had a vision for the, “this country of the United states was not built by those who waited and rested, and wished to look behind them.”
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