Discovery

The Good Ship Discovery-USA's Space Shuttle

The great space shuttle Discovery landed for its last time at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at approximately 12:00 PM east coast time.

This good ship served our nation through the years, including our returns to space after both shuttle disasters.  In truth, Discover was the most flown shuttle in the fleet.

This program is being cut by NASA.  I understand the need for us to be careful with our finances, but question the sanity of axing space programs.  Unless of course they're going to do something else instead.

And what could that be?  Mission to Mars?  Putting a station on the Moon?  Both these things need to happen. We also need to explore things like suspended animation for light-year travel.

Of course we have problems here on Earth that require our attention, but we shouldn't ignore the fact that the space program has been essential in our technological advances....and that many of these advances have brought about changes in the way we do things here on the third rock from the sun.  Things like computers, solar energy, batteries.....not to mention advances in medicine.....these things wouldn't have happened if we hadn't gone to space.

So for today, Fifty Five Is The New Discovery....the space ship and its' fleet's mission, a standing ovation for a job well done and a fervent prayer that we keep some version of a space program going.