The Shuttle Party Is Over

Transcendence Splashes Down, New York Magazine
“It is objectively no small feat, slipping the surly bonds of Earth. But somehow, over its 30 years of existence, NASA’s Space Shuttle program has become roughly as thrilling as the Delta Shuttle. Still, there’s something sad about the end of the program, which will officially shut down after Endeavour’s 25th and final mission, on April 29, and one last there-and-back by Space Shuttle Atlantis in June. It’s not so much that the program’s increasingly prosaic missions–they have amounted, in recent years, to something like space carpooling–will be missed. The sadness instead comes from the petering out of space travel’s promised transcendence.”
With ‘Coolest Job Ever’ Ending, Astronauts Seek Next Frontier, New York Times
“What happens when you have the right stuff at the wrong time? Members of NASA’s astronaut corps have been asking just that, now that the space shuttle program is ending and their odds of flying anywhere good anytime soon are getting smaller. The Endeavour is scheduled to launch this week, and the Atlantis is supposed to fly the last shuttle mission in June — and all the seats are spoken for. “Morale is pretty low,” said Leroy Chiao, a former astronaut who now works for a company that wants to offer space flights for tourists. “This is a time of great uncertainty.”