Not a bad record, out of 133 space shuttle missions only 2 failed to bring the astronauts home safely. I just hope either private companies or the government gets back up into space soon.

It certainly is the end of an era and possibly the beginning of a new one. Space I think, is finally going to be a commercial enterprise from now on. This is a needed early step to open up space travel to the masses. So yes it is sad to see the last Shuttle, they will always have a place in history. But, in my view, it was only a "shuttle" for the few. What we need now is a proper shuttle that you and I can take a trip on for a sane price.

Agree on that. Because one day I was to post pics on SSC from space 🙂 I'm not getting any younger so they need to make it cheap enough for us common folks to spend a few minutes up there.

Space shuttle uniek feature is it can take load back to earth. And it could take a haevy load.

Now the fall back to the traditional way.

I wonder will it be repaced by next gen. And is traditional way a short term solution. Till more advance efficient solution.

Or is it more a budged cut thing.