Space Shuttle - The Final Launch!

Almost after a quarter of a century the space shuttle program which had been the backbone of America's space program has curtains drawn on it. This has had a bit of its share of controversy as some argue that America's status as the leader in space exploration may be crippled as there seem to be no immediate alternative replacement for the space exploration vehicles. It would be another four to five years in waiting for the next generation of such vehicles.

The Shuttle Program had its own up and downs as some real valuable lives were lost during the entire program. God bless all those departed souls who had put all their efforts and endangered their lives to make each and every mission successful. We also cannot forget the people who worked behind the scenes, and had been instrumental in making all efforts in providing every type of support to the missions.

The Shuttle Program had been a great public relations success as it had established America's regular presence in space. Apart from this it had also proved itself to be a reliable workhorse - from ferrying satellites to and from the orbits, transporting personnel and supplies to space station, and let us not forget the launch of Hubble Space Telescope.

The main criticism of the Shuttle program which seemed to be quite legitimate was that the shuttle was only built to do just one thing - orbit the earth. Billions of dollars had been wasted with very little to show in the way of genuine exploration, thus wasting many years and resources along with human lives. The same effort, money and resources would have been utilized in preparing a manned mission to some nearby planet like Mars.

But all this criticism is nullified by the fact that this week marked the one millionth observation by the Hubble Space Telescope and how can the role played by the Shuttle Program in deploying the Hubble be forgotten. Over the last 20 years, the Hubble Telescope has opened the eyes of scientists and people alike to just show how vast, mysterious and glorious the universe really is.

The space programs had its own glorifying moments when the amazing mysteries of the space were revealed to the world by the evergreen Star Trek series a few decades ago. I hope we all remember the "Night Flight To Venus" by BoneyM. The final launch of the Atlantis had its own memorable moment by a fantastic theme song 'Fanfare for STS-135' composed by Bear McCreary.

It's an incredible legacy this vehicle has given not only to America but to the entire world and it would be a very sad moment to see it go into history.