The Space Shuttle Program has come to an End

Today the Space Shuttle Atlantis landed and with that comes the end of the shuttle program. Next stop, I imagine, for the shuttles will be a museum for public viewing.

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Oil Spill in the U.S. Gulf Coast Affects NASA

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the explosion of an oil rig is harming fragile animal, plant, and sea life in what was a beautiful area of water. I have personally visited the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico and I have swum and snorkeled around coral and beautiful fish and it breaks my heart to think of all the destruction this continued leak of oil is causing.
I did not realize it also affects NASA:

The expanding oil slick has cut into the deep water route typically used by NASA barges and their tugs to haul the 15-storey space shuttle fuel tanks from their manufacturing site – the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans – to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be attached to an orbiter for launch.

Space shuttle fuel tanks are built by Lockheed Martin and are too large to be delivered by train or truck. When fully fueled at the launch pad, they weigh about 1.7 million pounds (771,000 kg), counting the 535,000 gallons of cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant.

I am sure other commerce has been disrupted and I cannot understand how this tragedy occured but I hope they end the gush of oil that is filling the water every moment.

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Star Trek Live Show

Since the exhibition of Star Trek at Las Vegas was closed and auctioned off, there is now an option for those die-hard Trek fans:

This summer, visitors to Kennedy Space Center will be able to participate in Star Trek Live, a new stage show.Star Trek Live melds special effects, space technology and audience interaction in a half-hour production from CBS Consumer Products and Mad Science Productions.Reported by Trektoday last fall, Star Trek Live will be appearing at Kennedy Space Center beginning June 11.Star Trek Live will allow audience members to “join Starfleet Academy” where they will be catapulted into an adventure featuring special effects, science, audience interaction and on-screen appearances from Captain Kirk and Spock themselves, with clips from the 2009 Star Trek XI film enhancing the experience.The audience member “cadets” will prepare for their first day at Starfleet Academy, but their introduction is rudely interrupted by an attack from a Romulan renegade. It’s up to the cadets to adapt to living and working in space, and to figure out what has happened and how to fix it as the future of the Federation will be in their hands.There will be five performances scheduled daily at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the cost of which is included in the KSC regular admission price.

LINK.

Spring Cleaning at NASA

Since this year is the last year of the space shuttle program, they seem to be going into all the nooks and crannies and cleaning out stuff and deciding who will get what. From the article:

You may get a chance to see the container that holds their, well, you know, astro poop.With the shuttle fleet scheduled to retire later this year, NASA is cleaning out warehouses and storage rooms and offering space artifacts to certain organizations such as schools and universities, museums and libraries.

I doubt I want to see the potty the astronauts used, thank you very much! I find what the astronauts do interesting but not in such detail!

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was tentatively allocated 119 items, although officials don't know exactly what all of the items are. The artifacts won't be delivered until the shuttle program ends or as the items are phased out of production.

You can read the rest of the Article HERE and I am sure more news will pop up this entire year since the space program is sadly ending.

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Space Shuttle Retires and 23,000 Jobs will Disappear

Sadly, NASA is going to have the budget cut for manned space flight and this coincides with the retirement of the current space shuttle program which will end this year 2010. This in and of itself is a shame because NASA has led the way in technology for sending people into space, but it looks as if the private sector may begin to work on space craft capable of sending people into space as well as the European Space Agency. Another consequence to this budget cut will be the loss of 23,000 jobs, yes, 23,000 jobs!
From the article:

Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles' retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.
IN-DEPTH SPECIAL REPORT: Shuttle ShutdownThat sum includes 9,000 "direct" space jobs and -- conservatively speaking -- 14,000 "indirect" jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail stores and others that depend on activity at the space center, said Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce president.
"Our unemployment rate is going to skyrocket," she warned Thursday during a five-hour Brevard County Commission space workshop. Much conversation centered on the future of human space launches from KSC, and attendees heaped criticism on Obama's strategy.

I do not see the economy turning around to the positive side for many years or maybe ever, so I do not know what will happen to space travel. Since I am a science fiction lover and I dream of space travel, meeting alien life, and traveling the Universe, this seems like a big setback, for a while anyways.
Here is the article about the 23,000 jobs to be lost.