Yesterday the Atlantis Shuttle left the Earth's orbit for the last time. Interestingly enough, the Shuttle was bringing a Russian component to the International Space Station (ISS), its 11th and final voyage to the Station. Of course, with the end of the U.S. Space Shuttle program, we will need the Russians to get us back and forth to the ISS for a number of years into the future.Overall, the Atlantis Shuttle has been quite a workhorse with 25 years of service and 115 million miles to its name. So farewell to a big part of America's space mission. Only two more Shuttle flights to go; Discovery in September and Endeavor in November. While the nature of future craft is still cloudy, let's hope we can still build such sturdy craft to get us to where we want to go.
