Atlantis space shuttle launch

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Atlantis space shuttle launch

The space shuttle Atlantis took flight yesterday, on “her” last trip as a tribute to the 30 years NASA spent on this program. Unfortunately this leaves USA without any capabilities of transporting humans into space.

Several experts claim that NASA’s abandonment could have massive implications on scientific discovery. Others stated that they simply want to focus on newer technology. They are redirecting their engineers towards other areas they may have overlooked in the past, in order to change the way space travelling is done, and reduce the costs of each flight. No matter how you would look at it, it’s the end of an era. But what is next?

NASA ambassador Laura Venner stated that she “grew up with the shuttle” and that Atlantis was her generation’s Apollo. She added that being so close to that engineering marvel, makes her feel so patriotic. Laura Venner, Lyndhurst N.J resident, was in Florida to watch the ship fly one more time.

There were five space ships composing USA’s space fleet. Atlantis, Challenger, Endeavour, and finally Columbia. These were the first spaceships that were capable of going into space and coming back “in one piece” which made them the first reusable ships.

Two of them, unfortunately, the Challenger and Columbia were destroyed in catastrophic explosions that pulverized the ships and killed the crew.

Still, there is no discovery without risks. Despite all that, the shuttle program took more than 350 astronauts on space voyages, and played a vital part in the construction of the International Space Station which is operational to this very day.

“The program could have continued” stated Dr. Haym Benaroya, professor of probabilistic mechanics. He also states that, US was able to place a man on the moon, and now they have to “hitch a ride” on Russian spaceships.

NASA was forced to shut down the shuttle program in order to cut some of the costs. There were 135 missions and each of them cost about 450 million dollars. 1.7 billion dollars were consumed building Endeavour alone.

And still, despite shutting down the space shuttle program, USA will remain active in space. How will they do that? We do not know. But we can be sure that American pilots will not hitch rides on Russian ships for long.

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