The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed early this morning, closing the curtain on the Space Shuttle era. The thirty-year experiment with a reusable space vehicle (takes off like a rocket, lands like a plane) has come to an end. It was expected to save money by being reusable, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Now engineers agree that it’s more cost-effective — and safer — to use the more traditional rocket launch vehicles with the command module perched on top.

I still remember the first shuttle — Columbia — taking off in 1981 and, more impressively, landing safely at the end of the mission. It was an amazing feat. And out of 135 flights, two ended in disaster, reminding us all that space flight is still dangerous.

I’m not particularly sad to see the end of the shuttle era because I’d like to see more manned exploration of space outside of low-earth orbit. NASA wants to move in that direction, too. I hope to see the day man steps foot on Mars, and returns safely to earth. Americans have always been explorers at heart, and there’s a great big universe out there.