Student balloon photos final shuttle launch Atlantis – Credit: Quest for Stars
I think a lot about space and the stars and planets… I’ve always enjoyed Science and Science Fiction, space travel and the future, what ever it might bring to the Human Race. I used to read paperback novels even as a teenager, imagining exploring strange planets or traveling through time. Now I watch more SciFi TV and Movies than reading, but I’m still immersed in it…
And in the real world, I remember as a kid watching the American space program grow from the single manned flights (I barely remember that, mostly just the names) to the Apollo space program to land a man on the Moon. I remember having the TV set on when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon, and thinking how cool it would be to be Walking on the Moon. 
I dreamed of the future where I would be able to vacation in space, perhaps on the moon. At the very least I looked forward to being able to look through that porthole some day and see the earth live, without it being on a video screen.
Over the past 30 years, I’ve followed the US Shuttle program, cheering for the accomplishments through out the years, and mourning with the rest of the nation for the loss of 2 shuttles and astronauts that flew in them. I try to keep track of the changes being made to the ISS, (International Space Station) through the years, and most often have a picture as wallpaper on my computer of the latest images taken of the ISS. I can only imagine how fun and exciting it must be to be able to look out of a port hole and see either the Earth down below, or the Moon shining down.
July 8th was the final launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. My wife came in and woke me just in time for the launch, and I actually got tears in my eyes when the countdown reached zero and the plums of smoke started to rise. That was the final launch of final shuttle flight, with NASA moving to the next stage of manned space flight. In a nutshell, NASA is hoping to take the funding that previously had been used for the Shuttles, and redirect it to building new spacecraft, exploration with robotic craft, and the planning needed to take us to the moon again, to asteroids, and then hopefully, finally, to the other planets, like Mars. What an exciting future that will be with the potential of man going into space to see first hand, what is out there and what its made of.
I doubt that I will be around to see the next big step we will take in the exploration of our solar system and universe. Don’t get me wrong… I’ll be watching as the new commercial companies start flying into space, to move the astronauts and supplies to the ISS, and also to offer those first commercial space flights to those that can afford it. But the next big journey into space for humans will take many more years before they are ready. Ready to travel to the moon, to the asteroids and to the planets. I think it will be an exciting time for our children.
But for now, I will be watching… and dreaming… I will be imagining looking through the porthole at the Earth below… I’ll be watching and reading my Scifi films and TV.
—I’d like to know what you think.—
Want to see something pretty cool? Check out the schedule for the sightings of the International Space Station, here: Human Space Flight
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