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NEWS > SCIENCE > SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ENDS FINAL MISSION WITHOUT A BANG
SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ENDS FINAL MISSION WITHOUT A BANG
March 9 2011
Cape Canaveral, FL – When future generations look back on our early days of space flight they will no doubt have a great deal of respect for what was accomplished, especially in such a short period of time. They will undoubtedly look on our ventures 
into the Heavens with respect, knowing that those early efforts made their expeditions possible. Still, programs like Apollo and the Space Shuttle will inevitably be seen as more than a little quaint and outdated, very much how we look at the early days of planes or cars today.
They could, as well, look back at the space shuttle period in particular as having been one of the least productive periods in space history, relying on an aged and not particularly effective technology to further our voyages into the unknown. That program, after all, started out with a booming voice proclaiming the shape of things to come, and has now started its slow whispered exit from the public consciousness. Now one more chapter has been closed on that program with the mostly intact landing of Discovery, the oldest and most 
experienced of the shuttles, for the final time. While two more shuttle missions are planned, the landing of the Discovery was seen as a symbolic end of the program owing to its experience and its tendency to stay in one piece.
“This is the end of a historic journey and the retirement of a graceful old lady who has done all of humanity a great service. While it is certainly sad to see her go, Discovery has done a grand job for space exploration and she has certainly earned her retirement,” said a NASA spokesperson. “The landing went off without a hitch and we are glad to report that the interior and exterior of the vessel was largely intact. We lost a few heat panels here and there but that’s to be expected. Discovery is safe and sound on the ground and ready to slide into retirement.”
Discovery’s elder siblings, Challenger and Columbia both exploded while taking off and landing, respectively.
“The shuttle program has earned a lot of justifiable disdain. It has been expensive, 
unwieldy, a little unsafe but above all these other things it has prevented further advances in space exploration. The reliance on this program has taken money that could otherwise have been allocated to other, more effective causes,” said Scrape TV Science analyst Dr. Howard Poe. “The program hasn’t been a total write off by any stretch. It has launched satellites and done a great deal of the leg work to put the International Space Station together but a lot of that was just making the best of a bad situation. The intent of the program, a reusable and cost-effective platform for space launches, simply never materialized and the whole program became really a white elephant for NASA.”
130 missions have been launched since the first in 1981.
“The good news, I guess, is that this shuttle didn’t go out in a blaze of glory. It kind of
broke the cycle and so that is probably good news for the other two ships. Now this ship will never blow up travelling through the air and maybe, just maybe, the other two will go the same way, fingers crossed,” continued Poe. “In the end though that may not matter. I mean it is the end of the missions so they very easily could have just blown the thing up. It’s not like they are going to be doing anything with them anymore, they are just going to be sitting in museums and everyone gets really excited when these things explode. Ah well, maybe next time.”
Endeavour will start its final mission February 27th.
Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent
NEWS > SCIENCE > SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ENDS FINAL MISSION WITHOUT A BANG
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