Forged in the Stars

Forged in the Stars
copyright 2011 Patricia M. Shannon

In honor of the last space shuttle flight.

Forged in the Stars
copyright 2011 Patricia M. Shannon

Forged in the star that we call our sun,
dance in unbearable light;
flung into space, alone in the dark,
around and around in the night.

Coming together as ages pass by
following gravity’s call;
creating the planets, the comets, and moon,
so many worlds both big and small.

Forged in the stars, we were forged in the stars,
every atom from which we are formed,
has been recycled thru rocks, trees, and seas,
forever reborn and reborn.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43680621/ns/technology_and_science-space/

By Alan Boyle Science editor msnbc.com
updated 7/8/2011 4:04:21 PM ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For the last time in history, a space shuttle and its crew rose heavenward from NASA's spaceport on Friday, defying gloomy weather and the deeper gloom over the end of a 30-year era of spaceflight.

[...]

The tension of the final minutes was balanced by a sense of history. It will be at least three years before U.S. astronauts are once again sent into space on a U.S.-built spaceship.

[...]

The main objective of this final flight is to build up the International Space Station's stockpile of supplies and spare parts to see it through the next year.

[...]

Atlantis is due to dock with the space station on Sunday.

[...]

The foursome's main job is to transfer tons of supplies from the Italian-made Raffaello logistics module, riding in Atlantis' cargo bay, into the space station. The extra supplies will keep the space station's crew provisioned through the end of 2012. The astronauts will also drop off an experimental package aimed at testing the capability of refueling satellites robotically, and bring a faulty coolant pump back from the station.

[...]

If the mission proceeds as currently scheduled, Atlantis would land back at Kennedy Space Center on July 20, the 42th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

[...]

This final mission, known as STS-135, marks the 33rd flight of Atlantis and the 135th flight for the entire shuttle fleet.

During a post-launch briefing, mission managers admitted that they were choked up by the launch. "To me it looked like it was lifting off in slow motion," said Mike Moses, head of the pre-launch mission management team. "It was very moving. It was very beautiful."

[...]

The retirement of Atlantis and its sister shuttles is in line with a plan drawn up years ago, which called for NASA to stop spending money on shuttle flights so it could concentrate on developing spaceships to go beyond Earth orbit. NASA is aiming to send humans to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 and to Mars and its moons by the mid-2030s.

[...]

While NASA focuses on exploration, the job of resupplying the space station and transporting astronauts to and from low Earth orbit would be left at first to spacecraft operated by Russia and NASA's other international partners. Eventually, U.S. commercial spacecraft would help fill the gap. One of NASA's commercial partners, California-based SpaceX, is planning a test cargo run to the space station later this year.

SpaceX and other companies are receiving tens of millions of dollars from NASA to build spaceships capable of carrying astronauts as well as cargo, but those companies say it will take at least three years with adequate funding to put those spacecraft into operation. None of those spaceships will match the shuttle's 25-ton cargo-carrying capacity.

[...]

The shuttle workforce has already been reduced in anticipation of the program's end, and thousands are due to be laid off soon after the shuttle lands. Crippen said he was sad that so many people — including his daughter, a shuttle crew trainer — were losing their jobs. "But I'm proud that they've kept their focus," he said, "and that they want to get off this mission and make it as much a success as the first one."

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