With the safe landing of STS-135, the final space shuttle mission, yesterday morning, the program is officially over. Barring some kind of crazy, last minute, Hail Mary mission, we’ll never see another space shuttle actually shuttle anyone to space. The United States can no longer do that feat on its own.
Shuttle launches are a thing of the past. Is America’s dominance in space far behind? // Photo by NASA TV
As our present spacefaring abilities shrink,
lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are working to diminish our future space-related capabilities, too. The U.S. House of Representatives is working on the 2012 budget, and the
relevant subcommittee wants to cut NASA’s funds by 9.5 percent and terminate the
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Frequently called Hubble’s successor, the JWST would see farther (in terms of distance and back in time) than any telescope before and benefit astronomers of all kinds; of course, the project has also been
semi-famously plagued with budget and management problems.
So with the shuttle fleet retiring and our potential next-gen telescope potentially cancelled, it’s an interesting time for American astronomy. I mean, it’s tough to argue with the shuttering of the shuttles, those impressive but 4-decade-old pieces of technology. The new focus on private spaceflight may be just what the aerospace industry needs. And on the JWST front, the U.S. Senate still has a little something to say about next year’s budget, so all is not necessarily lost.
But I think it’s clear the days of American leadership and dominance in space are long-gone. That might be good news for the private industry, and for the countries now taking our place, but it still makes me a little wistful for the past and contemplative of what might have been. Am I the only one? Do you feel similarly, or am I just looking at this the wrong way? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
More coverage of STS-135 and the end of the Space Shuttle Program