It's the Final Countdown...

Thirty years ago, 1 month and 16 days after I was born, the first Space Shuttle was sent into orbit.  Though it wasn't until 1982 that NASA began using the Space Shuttle on actual operational flights, I can't help but feel a kinship with it.  Today, the last Space Shuttle flight occurred.  I've written before about the space program and what a shame it is that, as a country, we don't have the drive we once had in this arena.

image from wikipedia

 "Just four astronauts—Christopher Ferguson (Commander) , Douglas Hurley (Pilot), Sandra Magnus (Mission Specialist 1), and Rex Walheim (Mission Specialist 2)—are conducting the 135th and last space shuttle mission on board Atlantis."  Listening to NPR, I learned that this is one of the smallest crews in the history of the Space Shuttle and there is a very good reason for this.  Since Atlantis is the last of the Space Shuttles, there isn't an emergency back-up in case something were to go wrong during the mission.  So the astronauts would have to move into the International Space Station until the Russian Soyuz Spacecraft can bring them home.   As you can see from the photo to the right, there is a big size difference between the Soyuz Spacecraft and the Space Shuttle we're retiring.  The Space Shuttle was used to transport the different modules of the ISS into space and the Soyuz has a limit of four people.  I also learned on NPR that the Soyuz Spacecraft will be the only way to travel to and from the ISS for now.   

It makes me wonder at the future for the ISS.  I know that it has only recently been reprieved through 2020 and I was reading on Wikipedia that the United States doesn't currently have the means to de-orbit the part of the ISS for which it is responsible until a replacement is found for the Space Shuttle.  So will the ISS continue to be maintained after 2020 via the Soyuz and commercial space flights or will it linger in space until our government decides what to do with it.  If the current battle over our debt ceiling is any indicator, I have a feeling that it will remain in space until it becomes a problem we're not prepared to handle.