Taxi Please

The space shuttle Discovery landed yesterday. Squeezed into the news program they mentioned how it was the last flight. Only two more shuttle missions are planned. Then the entire program is over. The United States will have no more space ships.
I couldn't help but be reminded of all the earlier space craft. I remember Gemini and Apollo real well. I can still see those images on television of picking up the astronauts out of the ocean. Three large parachutes attached to that capsule and it falling. Of course I remember when man stepped on the moon. It was my birthday, July 20.1969. I have been fortunate enough to have visited the Kennedy space center and see all those exhibits. One look at a Gemini capsule will give you an understanding of just how much nerve it took to fly them. The shuttles are Rolls Royce compared to them.
Almost my entire life the United States has had some form of space craft. I hear we are going to pay the Russians to give us a ride to the space station. What an ironic turn of events. It was there launching of Sputnik that really got us started in the space race. I don't know about anyone else but I'd be a little leery of the Russian taxi service.
Sometime in June,the 27th I think,will be the final flight for the program altogether. I'm assuming a lot of people will be out of work. Wonder what ex flight control engineers do ? Mission specialist available for immediate employment. What about the entire space flight center. Does it just become a big museum ?
They haven't talked about that much in the news but I'm sure in the coming months we will all hear about it. Funny how I've seen rocket launches go from a big media event attended by everyone to barely getting a mention on the news at all. Space flight became blasse. Who would have thought so ?
I'm thinking in my lifetime there will be no more manned missions to other planets. Perhaps the Grandchildren will sit fascinated as we land on Mars or some asteroid. Of course the picture they see will be in High Definition with Dolby Surround Sound ! What wonders await. There are still people that deny we ever really landed on the moon. Some still think the world is flat. I'm convinced however that we did that ! I was hoping for a ride in a moon buggy one day but guess that isn't going to happen. Will man ever fly through space like in the movies ? Good chance of it unless we destroy ourselves first. Should we fly through space ? Well now there is a different question altogether.