Special Report Thursday: The End and Beginning of "Boldly Going"

"Space shuttle Discovery made its final landing today at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Completing its 39th and final flight, the Discovery now retires as Nasa’s oldest and most flown space shuttle. It was a bittersweet touchdown as everyone witnessed this history in the making. Discovery still holds the record(among all operating shuttels) with 39 missions, 148 million miles, 5,830 orbits of Earth and 365 days spent in space. It will take several months of work to dismantle engine parts and drain fuel before the Discovery will be ready for its final resting place at the Smithsonian Institution.

The Discovery is still in top shape and its retirement is due to the closing down of NASA’s shuttle program in order to financially support new programs to send astronauts beyond Earth’s orbit. NASA is under presidential direction to make this decision and to shut down the shuttle program by this summer."

[via USA Today] (I added the Bold text)

I was ranting the other day about how I'm kinda sad that we may not see inter-stellar travel in my life time. But this.. makes me kinda tear up a little, to think that we are retiring an era in the hopes of a new one. It is thought provoking and fascinating. I followed the Mars Rover mission from day one, and was riveted by every facet of the mission conception to execution. Still, I want to go into space.. really. I, I just cannot imagine a more humbling, awe inspiring, self-evaluation provoking adventure than to see Earth from the heavens, with the stars as an infinite landscape, and the Sun burning ever bright in the background. There is so much out there we do not understand, so much we can observe and expand our knowledge of how our own world works. I'm aware that this may sound somewhat escapist, ignoring all the challenges we face in the hear and now; I say, don't stop innovating or pushing this important work. It is because of the space program that we have so many of technologies that we do, the medical advances and the sparks of imagination that our kids and youth need to overcome and surpass their current situations. So, I'm excited, thrilled and enthralled at what may be next, what is around the proverbial planetary bend.