Then End of an Era.

I'm a little sad to report that last month, NASA launched it's last shuttle mission. Shuttle Endeavour (left) landed at Florida's Kennedy Space Center on June 1st, and it's next mission will be a permanent one as a museum piece at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. I grew up going to that museum with my parents and on school field trips. It's a good location for it.

Shuttle Discovery also retired from public service as of the first part of May. She's on her way to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum where my buddy Mark spent his formative years skipping classes and using the library there.

On May 29th, Atlantis rolled out to Launch Pad 39A. I've linked a pic below from Space dot com (like the above one) to show the pared-down crew. Atlantis is scheduled for July 8, and will be the final shuttle mission ever. I can't help feeling a note of sadness about the shuttle program's retirement, because doesn't currently plan to do any more human spaceflight.

No more astronauts, at least for the time being. Perhaps the private sector might come up with something to replace our beloved program?

And what, you may ask, does this mean for the International Space Station?

Stay tuned. I'll be discussing both these questions in future entries.