The End of an Era

It's a bittersweet landing for the returning astronauts who made history today.  It's good that everthing went off without a hitch.  They had a great launch, a successful mission, and a perfect landing, but unfortunately it was the last time NASA would be doing this.  I remember one of my first dates with my wife we drove to Cocoa Beach in Florida to have a picnic lunch in hopes of seeing the shuttle nearby.  I remember one morning driving to college in Daytona and being able to see the big orange flames coming out from behind the shuttle as it roared toward the ozone layer.  There were times in grade school we would gather around a small television set to witness a launch and discuss it in the classroom.  Even the movies loved our space program and made heroes out of our astronauts, which I firmly believe they are.  Who else would be willing to subject themselves to such high speeds, dehydrated food diets, cramped quarters for extended amounts of time, and risk death all in the hope of finding new information about outer space, other planets, or pictures of earth from very far away?  Houston, we have a problem!  I don't want it to end!  Maybe some new invention is on the way that will allow us to explore space cheaply in the very near future and we won't have to wait too long for the next adventure.