On July 8th the space shuttle Atlantis was launched to carry a multi-purpose logistics module to deliver supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station.
This event will always be remembered as "the final mission", the end of an era...
This event will always be remembered as "the final mission", the end of an era...
A huge amount of people were present at Cape Canaveral for this event, the largest in years!
An occasion that was indeed festive but raised the question on what will happen to the USA space flight.
"We have come full circle since 1961, back when we had yet to show we could launch people into space." said Steven Dick, a retired NASA chief historian. "We will be hitching rides from the Russian to go to the space station that is mainly ours".
"We have come full circle since 1961, back when we had yet to show we could launch people into space." said Steven Dick, a retired NASA chief historian. "We will be hitching rides from the Russian to go to the space station that is mainly ours".
But is this really what the future holds?
I remember my mum telling me how she watched on TV the first steps on the moon and how excited she was.
I wasn't born yet and I can only imagine what every person in the world must have felt in that moment.
True, the crew was American, but didn't Armstrong say "One small step for man but one giant leap for mankind"? I guess that involved everybody... Man on the moon... wow!
So it seems a bit sad, puzzling, questionable to abandon such a program as the shuttle was.
President Obama has opted to end it at a huge saving as each of the 135 missions over the years cost about $450 million.
The thing is, the space station is still there, the moon has been conquered...
But there are so many other places to discover...
So yes, this was the last mission of the space shuttle but the world progresses on evolution.
The "achievable" missions have been accomplished, now we can start a new era.
Would we be here where we are today had we just been happy with the first prototype of anything in our civilisations?
Would we have smart phones, sport cars, jet planes, air conditioning and blenders the way we know them today had we been happy with the first discoveries?
Let me answer that for you... NO!
I remember my mum telling me how she watched on TV the first steps on the moon and how excited she was.
I wasn't born yet and I can only imagine what every person in the world must have felt in that moment.
True, the crew was American, but didn't Armstrong say "One small step for man but one giant leap for mankind"? I guess that involved everybody... Man on the moon... wow!
So it seems a bit sad, puzzling, questionable to abandon such a program as the shuttle was.
President Obama has opted to end it at a huge saving as each of the 135 missions over the years cost about $450 million.
The thing is, the space station is still there, the moon has been conquered...
But there are so many other places to discover...
So yes, this was the last mission of the space shuttle but the world progresses on evolution.
The "achievable" missions have been accomplished, now we can start a new era.
Would we be here where we are today had we just been happy with the first prototype of anything in our civilisations?
Would we have smart phones, sport cars, jet planes, air conditioning and blenders the way we know them today had we been happy with the first discoveries?
Let me answer that for you... NO!
So goodbye shuttle, goodbye to what we know, what we have been conditioned to find fascinating and yet familiar...
But welcome to new challenges, welcome to new machines that for sure, in time, will come, to new missions, new destinations, new crews and training...
Welcome to the unknown... Just like in every other time of change in mankind...
The end of something is always the beginning of something else... And I guess that's also part of what Armstrong meant!
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