Space shuttle makes final departure from space station

[azmouse]

I hope this country can get a new program started. We need to continue exploration of space.

Quote:CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A space shuttle left the International Space Station for the very last time Tuesday, heading home to end the 30-year run of a vessel that kept astronauts flying to and from orbit longer than any other U.S. rocket ship.

All that remains of NASA's final shuttle voyage is the touchdown back home in Florida, scheduled before dawn on Thursday.

As a final salute, the space station rotated 90 degrees to provide never-before-seen views of the complex. The shuttle and its crew of four flew halfway around the station, cameras whirring aboard both vessels to record the historic event.

*snip*

Before leaving, the Atlantis crew gave their station colleagues a small U.S. flag that flew on the inaugural shuttle voyage in 1981. The flag is the prize for the first rocket maker that brings Americans back to the station, launching from America.

President Barack Obama described it last week as "a capture-the-flag moment here for commercial spaceflight."

Obama wants private companies taking over Earth-to-orbit operations so NASA can concentrate on sending astronauts beyond. The goals: an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by the mid-2030s.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43803573/ns/...nce-space/

[jaxx]

Obama wants private companies taking over Earth-to-orbit operations so NASA can concentrate on sending astronauts beyond.>>

I didn't know this, but good to know our space exploration will be ongoing. You would think the private companies would be moving on being able to get astronauts to the space station, and back.