It was both a little exciting and a little sad to come across this video of last week’s launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, as seen by a passenger jet leaving out of Orlando’s airport. On one hand, that’s an incredible view, in my book right up there with the photo caught last year by a Disney photographer of the same ship flying over Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom. On the other hand, though, this was officially 1 of 3 final shuttle flights ever.
Now admittedly I haven’t done a whole lot of research into my curiosities, so for all I know the answers to these might already be out there, but it makes me wonder what’s going to happen to Kennedy Space Center over in Cape Canaveral. Is it just going to become a museum, or do they still have other stuff for all of those space folks to do once the shuttle program ends? I mean, drive through the town and it becomes very clear that they’re very proud of the space program’s presence … what’s next??? I saw something in the paper a while ago about them actually recycling parts of the launch platform, but then again, not knowing much about their operations it could just be that there’s not much use for it because it’s so customized to the existing shuttles that anything new would require all new equipment anyways.
I do think that it’s pretty lame that our government is ending the program and relying more on private enterprises to “take the next step.” I suppose that only time will tell just exactly what that actually means, but I can definitely see how NASA is an easy target for budget cuts when state and local governments can’t even make priorities for teachers and education. They see space exploration as “an unnecessary expense” when we have plenty of problems right here on earth, but sometimes it’s that whole reaching for the stars mentality that gives people something to shoot for in the first place and provides the inspiration to overcome their own localized challenges.
It seems like despite our congressmen making more than ever these days, all they want to do is push government roles back onto the people, and I sincerely hope that doesn’t lead to the exmbarassing end to our space program in general because after seeing my very first shuttle launch back on the 4th of July in 2006, I sure would like to see a few more without bumping elbows to see the last two this year!