Back in the spring of 1981 space was hot. Star Trek and Star Wars were developing steam in the public while Apollo still glowed with every full moon. Excitement was building gradually about the first reusable space vehicle, the vaunted space shuttle. Rarely do things work quite as planned though, certainly nothing so complicated as an orbiter, and so Columbia waited at the Cape for almost two years (a record 610 days!), delay after delay moving the launch farther along. (At the time I didn't realize the launch prep had claimed two lives at the pad in an ominous foreshadow of eventual tragedy.)

Better late than never, she was finally set to launch twenty years to the day after "Yuri's Night." How far our kind had come since that early flight! All virginal and white on the pad she awoke, leaping towards the heavens on a concert of fire. For three days Young and Crippen took OV-102 on her maiden flight with panache, joy, and relief, and she brought them home with a bay-full of promise for the future.

Now, the shuttle era draws to a close. NASA has released the manifest of the remaining flights scheduled, and though no one denies this list may change a little, particularly to deliver more science up to ISS, there are few who believe the shuttle will fly very long into the next decade. (Not that a roster of figures like John Glenn aren't arguing against the wheel-stop, but that's expecting a lot of political leadership to show some common sense.)

To no small amount American prestige in space is measured by every shuttle flight. These ships are annoyingly complex, but what they lack in visual or performance grace is more than made up for in that they do what is asked. And there's a great deal of expertise developed to put them together. Without a successor program to absorb that expertise, estimates are eighty percent of shuttle jobs will be lost.

The shuttles have performed as best they could even as the design evolved from the first test flights of Enterprise. Successful missions served by the fleet include the magnificent Hubble Space Telescope and the incomparable International Space Station. Discovery, Endeavour, Atlantis, and preciously remembered Columbia and Challenger, all have advanced human exploration as expected. People have paid with their lives to see this program operate. Their precious contribution must not fade away along with the dream of human space exploration. Something must be done directly to commit others to the idea.