WELCOME HOME ENDEAVOR!

Marion Pellicano Ambrose

Endeavor ended its 122 million mile career with a bang this morning at around 2:35 am. I was sitting at my computer typing when two shotgun like blasts scared about 2 years off my life before I realized that the shuttle was due back. I switched on the TV to witness a smooth landing for Endeavor and the end of its 16 day mission.

Commander Mark Kelly spoke of the amazing design of the shuttle and how Endeavor, even though its career is at an end, leaves a great legacy.

Even as Endeavor landed for the last time at KSC, Atlantis sits on the pad awaiting its final flight and the end of an era in Space Travel.  I don’t know how it is elsewhere, but here on the Space Coast, there is great sadness and disappointment at the coming end of the shuttle program.

We hope that new plans and programs will soon help restore our area to the vital, thriving, center for space exploration and research that it has been since President Kennedy first set the goal of reaching the moon. We also hope that people everywhere will remember all the advances in Science, Medicine, Technology, Diet and Nutrition, and so many other areas that came about because of the work that was done in the space program.

THE END OF SPACE TRAVEL

Marion Pellicano Ambrose

The White House announced that President Barack Obama and the First Family plan to attend the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on Friday April 29^th. This will be the second to last mission for the cancelled shuttle program. The commander of the mission, Mark Kelly, wish of hoping his wife Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will be able to attend the lift off looks promising. Giffords was shot through the head in January and has reportedly made amazing progress and may attend.  The Congresswoman, who served on the House Science and Technology Committee and took on NASA affairs while heading the space subcommittee, had made repeated attempts in the past to have the President attend a launch, but to no avail. When she was told he would be present on the 29^th she was said to have smiled and said “Awesome”.

Whether the people of the Space Coast and NASA employees will be as pleased at the President’s visit remains to be seen. United Space Alliance, who is the primary contractor for the shuttle, announced that 2,000 workers have been laid off. A total of 7,000 workers at Kennedy Space Center are expected to lose their jobs after the launch of the last shuttle, Atlantis, in June. When the President visited KSC about a year ago, he pledged to spend $40 million to provide new jobs for laid off shuttle workers. Unfortunately, funding is now uncertain as Congress and President Obama enact the recent budget deal that will fund the Federal Government through September. It looks like we’ll be hitching a ride with the Russians if we hope to continue participation in the work at the International Space Station.

How do you feel about the President’s cancellation of the Constellation Program?  If it were up to you, what would you do about America’s Space Program? Comment and let us know. (Opinions welcome, but please no trashing of people or parties. Thank you.)

While you’re thinking about it, check out one of our Lunch Time Polls: Are we really alone?

http://delayedreactionlounge.blogspot.com/2011/04/lunch-time-poll_21.html