And rightly so.
That’s what Space Shuttle flight director LeRoy Cain said after the successful shuttle landing this morning in California.
Will anyone remember what this shuttle flight was really suppose to be about? Just what did they accomplish up there? No one knows anymore.
All we do know is that the bird launched (loudly), a piece of foam broke off (again), ground control freaked out (understandably), the shuttle did some loop-de-loops in space so the space station could take pictures of its underside (cool), pieces of the shuttle were hanging (not cool), Houston orders a space walk (always cool – looking), the astronaut pulls the pieces off (hero), they prepare for a reentry which may or may not kill them (nervy), the landing is delayed (conspiracy theories run rampant), then the landing is a go and everyone holds their breath (and prays).
Wheels down…
Phew.
Is this really how shuttle flights are suppose to go? No.
I think we’ve just witnessed the last shuttle flight, ever.
Not quite the ending everyone imagined, but so what. The technology is outdated and remains dangerous. NASA needs to answer a few hard questions.
- Do we need to put humans in space? Robots do such a nice job, and if they are destroyed, it’s only money.
- What are our goals in space? From the outside, it looks like the shuttles primary job is to ferry supplies back and forth to a space station, which is doing…what? Perhaps NASA should put a PR team on that one?
Overall it’s time to go back to the drawing board and re-think space exploration.