Space Shuttle Program Nears an End
28 March 2011
Space Shuttle Discovery completing its 39th and final flight
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Christopher Cruise.
BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today, we will tell about American plans for space exploration after the space shuttle program. We tell how more and more Americans are using the Internet to gather information about their health. And we tell about a study that linked eating apples to a longer life.
(MUSIC)
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The end is near. The American space shuttle Discovery returned to earth on March ninth after visiting the International Space Station. Now there are only two shuttle flights left. The shuttle Endeavor is set for launch in the middle of April. Near the end of June, the shuttle Atlantis will return to space. Then, after thirty years and one hundred thirty-five flights, the shuttle program ends.
BOB DOUGHTY: So, what is next for NASA, the American space agency? The answer is…many things. But for a while, NASA will not be sending any humans into space. Using astronauts is costly.
Earlier this month, NASA signed a deal with Russia’s space agency to transport American astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA says the agreement is worth more than seventy-hundred fifty million dollars. Under the agreement, the Russian space agency will take twelve astronauts to Space Station between twenty-fourteen and twenty-sixteen.
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