End of an Era

Well, This Tuesday evening we saw some history.

The Space Shuttle and the ISS (International Space Station) were clearly visible in the evening sky as they orbited 220miles overhead.  They were visible for about 3 minutes.  We had a bunch of friends over for dinner and games.. so we all ran outside and watched them orbit past.  It was cool.. but they looked much like very bright stars going by rather than spacecraft... i guess so.. they were over 200miles away!!!

The Space Shuttle Discovery was on it’s final descent… for good.

The International Space Station will stay up there orbiting.. but no longer visited by any US spacecraft for many many many years.

We had 5 space shuttles in all:

Discovery has landed (yesterday) for it’s last trip.. it orbited the earth 365 days in 39missions.

Endeavour and Atlantis will make their final flights this April and June respectively.

Two others were destroyed in accidents:

Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff on January 28, 1986, killing seven astronauts.   (Tons of publicity and I remember where I was standing when it happened).

Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Texas on February 1, 2003, killing seven more astronauts.  (Not televised nor reported very much.)

God rest their souls.

The International Space Station will continue to be visited by Russia, Europe and Japan, as well as two U.S. firms, Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital Sciences.  It’s a $100billion project of 16 nations that has been under construction 220 miles above Earth since 1998.

The USA is NOT planning any new space programs nor space craft construction any time soon… basically.. it’s over for now.  Thus ends our 30-year Space Shuttle program.

=(

Here are some quick pictures of the shuttle Discovery and the ISS.