NASA Delays End of Space Shuttle Program

NASA, according to Space.com, has decided to fly the last space shuttle mission into next year 2011. From the article:

Space shuttle program managers officially decided Thursday to delay the launch of NASA's next space shuttle mission to Nov. 1 and push back the last scheduled flight to late February 2011.
NASA is retiring its space shuttle fleet after 30 years of service to make way for future programs aimed at sending astronauts to visit an asteroid by 2025, then target missions to Mars.
Once the space shuttles retire for good, NASA will rely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the space station until American commercial spaceships become available.
So, we have until next year to watch the space shuttle and I hope the last flight will be celebrated because most people have either forgotten about it or do not realize that the program is ending. It will be a sad day, but hopefully new ships will be built in the private sector as long as the governments do not put up too much red tape and make it difficult for private companies to fly in space.