The Last Shuttle...

I have always, and I mean since I was a small child with the Gemini and Apollo Missions, been a huge fan of NASA and manned space exploration. When I was a former child, our heroes were the astronauts, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, and of course Neil and Buzz!  The vehicles that they used to get them into space, and later to the Moon and back were incredible feats of engineering. I was one of those nerdy kids who knew every instrument in the CM and LEM and what the pilots did in each seat. After the last Apollo mission though, my interest waned, though I still checked in every now and again to see what NASA was up to.

Then the space shuttle program was announced.
The shuttle held that bright shining promise of everyone of us eventually doing his or her time in outer space. Perhaps working and building that Kubrickian space station, or more than likely it would be a vacation on some Las Vegas style space resort on the moon! I remember being up at the crack of dawn for the first shuttle test flight in the early eighties. It was exciting to see a lift off of a manned vehicle again!

I feel a little sad, maybe sad isn't really the right word, more like wistful when I think of the events that I have seen during the long history of NASA and especially the shuttle and the final flight of the Atlantis. I will always tell anyone that will listen that the 'Final Frontier' is where we should be. I'm sometimes disappointed when I look up into the sky at night and realize that only a small cadre of humans have actually achieved Earth orbit and even fewer have stepped foot on an extraterrestrial object.

Anywho, here is my humorous tribute. The only space shuttles that are left to ride are at K-Mart and Walmart, and possibly that 7-11 in Bakersfield.