Goodbye Space Shuttle

Today was a historic moment. It was the last flight of the space shuttle Atlantis and of the whole space shuttle fleet. An era of manned space flight by NASA seems to be over for the time being. Our astronauts will be going up in Russian spacecraft and supposedly in privately owned spacecraft.

The shuttle is one of those things that has always piqued my imagination, and my sense of wonder. Despite the setbacks that have occurred. The year I was born the Challenger exploded, and then later in my life, the Columbia. That said, it was still safer than driving, and it was work that really mattered. We've got so much from the space race, so many improvements on technology that wouldn't be possible today without it.

Now the final mission has launched, and an era is at an end. To my cousins' daughters, the space shuttle will be as much an antique as the Apollo missions were to me. How do you explain them to those who didn't hold that sense of wonder? It's something to consider.