Discovery...farewell

The Space Shuttle "Discovery" is now back home on US soil after it's final flight into space. The space shuttle will now be retired and later will go to it's new home at the Smithsonian Institution Museum.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/sp ... ttle_N.htm

The other two remaining space shuttles "Atlantis" and "Endeavour" will make their final space flights later this year, before they two will be officially retired.

This is a sad ending to this era of space shuttle flights. It just won't be the same not seeing them take-off and land anymore and see their transmissions from space, etc.

I'm not exactly sure where the space program is going from here.

It sounds as if anyone wanting to go to the International Space Station will now have to depend on the Russians or some other way of getting there. That just doesn't seem right to me.

Will anyone else miss the space shuttles?

What do you think should happen next in the subject of space exploration?

Comments or Opinions?

I'm sure NASA has a plan to keep going. Plans for new space vehicles more suited to the Mars trip are likely already in the works. It's a shame to see the shuttle program end, but those ships are pretty old. It must take a lot of work to keep them flying.

Well, I see the whole space exploration business as a passing technological fad, motivated by potential military uses during the cold war and propaganda . Yeah, there are some important research and experiments going on, but people will rarely hold their breaths when a new mission starts, regardless of its scientific importance.

The shuttle program fell prey of the diminished interest in the space program. Surely we would have new and improved shuttles by now if there were economic or military opportunities in space exploration, but as it is not the case, why bother spending billions?

NASA will keep some space exploration programs going on, but I expect them to be low-profile and suffer with delays, unless a new fact changes everything.

That's true; if there were more military uses for space travel, NASA would have a lot more funding. The end of the cold war removed much of the previously perceived need for the space launches. Shuttle launches don't seem as important as they once did. The idea of being an astronaut is much less attractive thanks to the loss of two shuttles, too. NASA seems to be counting on private industry to take over some of their old duties, so maybe they'll be outsourcing a lot of work to the private sector.