The Last Liftoff

It was a little strange, the realization that what I had originally planned to ignore and sleep through was going to be the very last ever launch of the STS vehicle. I was one of sixty or so fifth graders cramped around what was then the very biggest television I had ever seen (27") watching the launch of Columbia back in 1981. So I thought there would be a bit of symmetry in staying up to watch the final launch of Atlantis all these years later.

It seems strange now, knowing that there are no more missions planned, no viable manned launch vehicles flying the US flag being fitted out, no noble and historic names like Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Endeavor, and yes, Atlantis currently in service. They are all in the process of or scheduled for being rendered "safe" and converted into museum pieces. I think Enterprise has already gone to the Smithsonian but I am not sure. I’m fairly certain the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola has put in for one but I don’t know the status of the request. It would be odd not to see one at U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, home of Space Camp (which is a blast, BTW), but I am a very ashamed space geek because I do not know where they are all heading.

All my life there has been a manned space program in the United States. From my birth at the tail-end of the Apollo program, to the Skylab program, to the birth of the Shuttle program. It’s going to be strange to not have the sky ripped apart at the Cape on a semi-regular basis when we fling humans into the vastness of space (OK, so Near-Earth Orbit isn’t that vast, but go with it). It’s just wrong. Maybe our next President will see the wisdom of reinstating the Constellation program, which was the marriage of the Orion crew vehicle and Ares rocket that President Obama cancelled. It was probably too much the symbol (in his mind) of American exceptionalism and colonialism. Can’t have that can we.