Space Shuttle Mssions Over: Saying Good Bye to a Friend is Never Easy

Is anyone else from my age group feeling the same way about the Space Shuttle ending its historic run of successful extra orbital exploration? It’s the end of an era, and it should not go without more than some newsworthy mention and some patriotic rah-rah. The end of the shuttle mission is a much bigger deal to my classmates and me.

These ships have been part of my life from the 1980’s. I remember while my mother worked as a house cleaner visiting one of her jobs and watching a shuttle launch with my brother on TV. I was probably 7 or 8, and I clearly remember the reporters going on about how big an achievement this was for America and our exploits into space. Space stuff dominated my favorite pastime, Lego building, and shuttle-like crafts were always a favorite. When I finally got a shuttle set, I was far too old to really enjoy it. I still played with it though. But forgive me if I don’t reveal how old I was…

I also have clear and fond memories of when classes stopped for televised launches where we all sat silently and watched the graceful shuttle brutally shot into space with massive rocket force. My science-crazy brain was enthralled. One classmate (I’ll withhold her name to protect the innocent) was a big Space Camp junkie. She had great stories of the good times and cool science stuff she got to do, mostly revolving around planning shuttle missions. There was a kind of permanence to the whole idea of the shuttle program.

Even with the Challenger disaster, shuttle missions were still nothing but cool. Of course the tragedy sparked another side of human nature, the inevitable Challenger jokes that admittedly I exchanged and still remember. They are all irrelevant over time, thank God, and have gone the way of vinyl records for the current generation of kids. Still, it was part of my growing up. I remember hearing that the launch failed in 7^th grade, and when it blew up, the teachers hurried to turn on the TVs to follow the story. History at its worst was unfolding before our eyes. I am grateful that Mr. Williams, my teacher, did not shield us from it.

Over time the launches became passé. Even the space station was greeted with a “so what” kind of flavor from the people I encountered, especially kids. Launches became news bites and filler not headlines. It’s funny how we go from major achievement making headlines to being ho-hum in about ten years. It’s still a triumph of human endeavor to get something made on earth out into space and back without a hitch. We’ve had hitches. They’re not pretty. But we kept exploring. That’s the American spirit.

So now we’re moth-balling these fabulous vehicles into museums and moving on with no replacement. Somehow I always believed that NASA would have the next great idea waiting to replace these way-cool crafts when it was time to hang them up. But for now we need to rely on our “good friends” the Russians to get things into space and to the ISS. Not a great situation if you ask me.

So I watched the coverage this morning reminiscing about the old days when everything the shuttles did was a big deal. That never changed, just the newsworthiness did. And that’s a shame.

I feel old today. A part of my childhood that I saw born into the world’s consciousness is now a museum piece. Just like cassette tapes and aerial antennas on my roof, we replace technology in sprints, but somehow the Space Shuttle isn’t one of the things we’re updating. I can’t figure out why, either.

But I’m sure I will still daydream about riding on that wonderful craft and forever be a kid if even only in my minds eye.

Good bye, Space Shuttle. You were a great friend.

Chip Grefski