(11 Jul 2011) HEADLINE: 30 years of shuttle history
CAPTION: NASA's shuttle program is ending after 30 years and 134 missions linking humans to space. (July 7)
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Shuttle Atlantis sits on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center ready for a final voyage.
One last mission to deliver food and space parts to the International Space station.
(Charles Bolden/Washington, DC - NASA Administrator
"It's time to end the shuttle program, there's no question about that. It has been an absolutely, incredible vehicle"
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After 30 years, and 134 missions, NASA's shuttle program is ending.
Shuttle tests started as a way to keep the space agency working after the moon landings.
First flown in April, 1981, the shuttle was promoted as new way to link Earth and space.
Designed to blast off like a rocket, maneuver as a spacecraft and land on a runway, a shuttle could be serviced and launched again in a matter of months - the first reliable, reusable space ship.
(Valerie Neal/Curator - Air and Space Museum)
"The space shuttle was meant to introduce a new era of space flight in Earth orbit, for practical purposes and to make space flight routine."
Routine shuttle flights meant launching satellites from the payload bay, and snatching satellites out of orbit for repair.
Without shuttle, there would be no Hubble space telescope.
Despite continued efforts at improving crew safety and reliability, 14 astronauts and two shuttles, Challenger and Columbia, were lost.
"The principle consequence of the Challenger accident first, and again with the Columbia tragedy, was to shock people into the realization that space flight wasn't yet truly routine, and in fact, it might never be truly routine because of the inherent risk and danger involved."
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Still, both tragedies brought renewed public support for space travel.
And NASA joined 16 other countries to build the International Space Station 225 miles above Earth.
Humans took up housekeeping in space - and conducted experiments in a weightless three bedroom house.
(Joe Engle, CMDR - STS 2)
I think we'll look back and we'll all agree that it's the finest workhorse that we have ever had for taking people, and equipment and supplies into space and returning them."
Women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and astronauts from a score of other countries made up shuttle crews - a testament to the diversity of the space program.
"So there's going to still be Americans in space, there will still be an American space program. What we won't have for a while is the privilege and enjoyment of seeing Americans launch from US soil, that's what we're going to be missing."
After 30 years of shuttle missions, space travel is part of the human experience.
In the future, commercial companies will take over some missions, while NASA looks deeper in to space.
As America turns the page to new ways of space travel, this final mission promises a strong end to the storied history of the shuttle program.
Jon Belmont, Associated Press
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