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Space travel is something which has been ever present in my relatively short life. I have vague memories of a tiny man descending a ladder to another world inside a black and white television and very vibrant memories of Crippen and Young taking the very first shuttle 'Columbia' into low earth orbit when I was 15 (So vibrant, I didn't have to look that up)

Maybe it's because of that presence that meant that Friday's Last Shuttle mission hit me so hard, speaking to a 16 year old this weekend, he saw Shuttle as just another modern wonder and was unemotional about its demise. I can't do that and I'm willing to admit I am wrong, but more ended on Friday than the use of a spacecraft. I think we stopped advancing.

In the early 70s, the Apollo programme was canned leaving a fully built Saturn 5 Rocket to sit on its side at Johnson Space Centre in Houston but in the meantime we had Skylab. Then for nearly 10 years, NASA planned for the Shuttle and the Space Station captured our imagination and fuelled dreams of a 'way station' to the planets and back to the moon. With The Shuttle Programme coming to an end NASA had 'Constellation' but then Obama, fighting wars across the globe to maintain the flow of oil to the west, canned that project. So where to now?

Obama has said 'commitment' but doubters see dark days ahead for the NASA Administration and that commitment is yet to realised with serious long term plans which will see us pushing the boundaries of human endevour rather than looking back at ourselves and wondering why. Without some serious increases in propulsion technology, the fate of humanity rests within the delicate planet which we are currently turning into a resourceless wasteland and the memories of those who have given their lives in careers and in reality will have been dealt a heinous disservice

When Atlantis returns in a few days time, I will shed a tear and look forward to the next instalment in Human Space Flight...I pray, I live to see it.

Ewen Rankin

@EwenRankin or @BritishTechNews

http://www.EwenRankin.co.uk

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Ewen Rankin

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