February 24, 2011, was the last flight of the Shuttle Discovery. Endeavor’s last flight is scheduled for April 19, and Atlantis has a tentative final launch for the summer. After that the Nation and People who once broke the bonds of gravity and went into the stars will be again tethered to their blue planet.
There is hope that private space programs will be able to pick up where the Shuttle program ended. Mostly, the ferrying of people and materials from Earth into space and to the International Space Station. NASA has plans for a program to replace the shuttle program but, as of now, it remains unfunded. In the current political climate in Washington, D.C. I do not see that changing anytime soon.
In a climate where such helpful programs as WIC and funding to public radio and television are being gutted, yet funds for two disastrous, decade long foreign wars has remained steady I have little hope for NASA.
I find this terribly depressing without being able to explain why…