With a small sigh of relief that nothing went wrong – odds were good after all; less than 2 percent of the time has a shuttle flight gone dreadfully – one sees that the Space Transportation System gracefully concluded major operations early today. Just before 6 a.m. Atlantis  coasted to a stop on the runway at Kennedy Space Center,  its four crew members unbuckled,  got out,  and started a long day of handshakes while their ride cooled off at the Orbiter Processing Facility. Atlantis’s fate: right there at KSC, on museum duty.

While I’m at it, Endeavour will be at the California Science Center in LA, Discovery the Smithsonian’s facility, for things that don’t fit into the original Air and Space Museum,  just outside DC. The Enterprise prototype, which flew but never left the atmosphere, will rest at the Intrepid museum in New York City.

For a heavily detailed account of the orbiter’s last working hours through the landing, almost command by command, subsystem by subsystem, check out the entry at NASA spaceflight.com , by Chris Bergin and Chris Gebhardt. Their’s is a labor born of deep devotion.

A few general outlets are looking back at the science accumulated by 135 shuttle flights in 30 years. There is some.

• AP – Seth Borenstein: Space shuttle’s science brought payoffs to Earth ; Good call, he starts with the eye-popping radar altimetry imagery of Earth from a flight 11 years ago with a side-scan system on board. Also in it are Sam Ting’s cosmic ray detecting and dark-matter seeking spectrometer, recently put on board, the ferrying of the Hubble to orbit, lots of physiology and other human factors research, etc. He debunks Tang and Teflon myths. And first quote is from physicist and debunker-in-chief Bob Park, heir to the late James Van Allen in decrying the manned space program as a colossal waste of money when automated probes do far more science and do it far cheaper.
• Reuters – Irene Klotz : U.S. space shuttle spawned heart pump, fly by wire ; Her first quote is from an insider with things to justify, who described the program as providing “unbelievable benefit and return on the investment of the American taxpayer.” Hmm. That does look like pure boast. Just maybe however it is subject to interpretation, akin to telling a proud mom and pop, “That is the most remarkable looking baby I’ve seen lately.” It has lots of wiggle room. She cites long lists of spin-offs, such as one that may help Ford sell natural gas powered cars.

Two significant UK news outlets commissioned outside space experts to write the shuttle’s legacy. They are poles apart in tone and message.

• BBC – Valerie Neal (Nat’l Air and Space Museum curator): Viewpoint: The space shuttle- ‘magnificent flying machine’ ; It was the world’s first big space truck, it had abilities unmatched before and probably for a very long time to come, and it “made earth orbit a home and workplace.” It succeeded in all major goal – except that of making access to space cheaper.
• Guardian – Lawrence Krauss (Arizona St. University physicist, author): The space shuttle programme has been a multi-billion-dollar failure / Atlantis and the other space shuttles have been a colossal waste of American resources, time and creative energy. The real science done by Nasa has not involved humans ; His most damning remark – one measure of its failure is that it has been boring. Plus, it did launch and thanks to heroic astronaut work, repair the Hubble. But the Hubble’s sublime achievements would have transpired more cheaply and  better, it says here, with help from nobody in a space suit.

And a few asking what’s next:

• Aviation Week – Michael Griffin : Former NASA Chief: Shuttle Was Oversold ; An authoritative review of what the shuttle could and could not do. Plus, a powerful reflection among many old NASA hands – that the US is going forward with no plans at all for a replacement system able to carry the torch forward, toward establishing humankind as a spacefaring civilization. Next bullet has a different p.o.v.
• NYTimes – Kenneth Chang: Race to the Moon Heats Up for Private Firms ; Tightly focussed on one aspect of entrepreneurial rocketeering and thrill rides. But also a firm reminder that some people are trying to build a space age powered by real muscle: Profit.
• Philadelphia Inquirer – Paul Halpern (op ed by a physicist): U.S. science is going the way of the shuttle ; Yes, he writes, without shuttle more money might go to science. But instead, little money is going to anything in space. He also lambastes the space tourism industry as a route to colonization beyond Earth. He sees the shuttle’s end as corollary to the precarious chance that the Webb space telescope will fly, and to the end of operations by the  earthbound Tevatron particle accelerator.
• Montreal Gazette – Max Harrold: Down-to Earth priorities may schuttle future space plans ; Canada has been a solid partner with NASA all along – and worries there about space programs and science generally are a match for those in the US.

ON the breaking news coverage of this morning’s landing, only two reporters were in mission control for its last shuttle duty. Heds suggest they weren’t always looking at the same things at the same time. Here are their reports:

• AP – Seth Borenstein : Applause, but no tears in Mission Control at end ;
• CNN – Ed Levandera and wires, staff : Tears, congratulations as Atlantis lands, shuttle program ends ;

CLARIFICATION: I’m too obtuse by a mile. The heds may not imply as much but the reporters agree. No tears in Mission Control. There were some elsewhere though.

-Charlie Petit

 

 

 

 

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