apkallday:

//The End: NASA Space Shuttle Program 

Yesterday morning was a sad day for us men and women who were not so long ago little boys and girls looking up towards the night sky and dreaming of what it would be like to fly through space. After 30 years and over 100 flights into outer space, NASA’s Space Shuttle program has just completed it’s final mission.

It’s hard impossible to get Americans to agree on anything. But I think when Atlantis touched down for the last time early yesterday morning, people all over the country took part in the collective wiping of a tear or two as a program that inspired an entire generation came to a quiet close. I know that I speak for Generation Y when I say that we are totally bummed about this. All of us wanted to be astronauts at some point or another. Our parents, knowing that there was no way in hell the paste eating, ant burning, Barbie undressing, motion sick little person they were raising was ever going into space, supported our unrealistic childhood career path and let us dream about wearing a cool suit and drifting among the stars. With the passing of the shuttle program, so too passes that youthful ambition.

I sincerely believe, or at the very least wish, that the shuttle program will not be the last of it’s kind; that what Atlantis’ commander Chris Ferguson said is true. ‘America,’ he said as put the ‘ole girl in park, ‘Will not stop exploring.’ Fingers crossed.

I guess one silver lining to the totally depressing cloud hanging over space travel is that, since ‘astronaut’ is put on hold for a while, there will be no shortage of police officers, firefighters, doctors, presidents of the United States, Dora The Explorers, and Spidermen. Without space travel, it would seem that the world looks like it is to be a much safer place.

NRTIII

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