Memories of the Space Shuttle

Today's launch of the Atlantis space shuttle was bittersweet.  It's always glorious to see the fiery, majestic plume carrying the rocket-strapped ship full of astronauts up toward the heavens for another mission, but it's sad to know that this was the last time we would see such a sight.  It was the last space shuttle flight and the last United States manned space flight in the foreseeable future.  With NASA's completion of the shuttle program, I was eager to witness the beginning of the next era in American manned space exploration, but the cancellation of the Constellation program means that we will have to wait a lot longer to see the U.S. return to the moon or send humans to Mars.  The worst-case scenario is that we may never again come close to fulfilling those science fiction dreams that seemed to be such a reality when Neil Armstrong and others after him set foot on lunar soil. 

Despite the criticism of not immediately returning to the moon and beyond, despite the tragic Challenger and Columbia disasters that forever scarred us all, the space shuttle program can rightfully be called a success.  Shuttles launched the Hubble Telescope and helped build the International Space Station.  More importantly, the shuttles kept our hopes and imaginations alive.  My parents' generation had the Apollo program and we had the space shuttle program.  I remember watching the launches and the touchdowns in breathless anticipation (the night time launches were particularly awe-inspiring), I remember watching video of spacewalks as heroic astronauts risked their lives to fix the damaged Hubble, I remember being inspired to see pioneer John Glenn return to space on a shuttle mission. 

Even if the shuttle never ventured beyond Low Earth Orbit, it was not difficult to imagine future space travel to other planets and maybe other stars as technology advanced and such missions became commonplace.  Now I wonder if my little daughter will ever see another American manned space flight in her lifetime.

Despite the melancholy of seeing the shuttle era come to an end, the positive accomplishments of Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour will never be taken away.  I look forward to visiting the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York and seeing the Enterprise shuttle prototype when it's finally displayed there.  The other surviving shuttles will be on view at the Smithsonian Institution near Washington, D.C., the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

Hopefully, American men and women will someday soon once again be able to fly past our atmosphere and explore the mysteries of space, building on the legacy of the astronauts who came before.