The End of the Beginning
Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center this morning. I rose about 5:30 this morning and took time to fire up my iPad and open the NASA TV App in order to witness the successful landing of the Space Shuttle Atlantis . This marked the conclusion of flight STS-135 and, moreover, the completion of the US Space Shuttle Program that has been so much a part of my life over the past 30 years. Having missed the launch 13 days ago due to a business meeting and missed virtually every important aspect of the mission live (I was able to replay videos of everything online later, of course), I wanted to be sure to at least be in the Now for the touchdown in Florida. STS-135 replenished the International Space Station (ISS) with a year of supplies and brought back to Earth a lot of “junk” (mostly various devices that have broken over the years aboard the ISS) for analysis by various engineers to make such things better the next time. And there will be a next time. This is not the end of a