Harrison Schmitt talked about the moon landings of the Apollo program as a historic beginning to greater exploration.
HARRISON SCHMITT: "This valley of history has seen mankind complete its first evolutionary steps into the universe: leaving the planet Earth and going forward into the universe. I think no more significant contribution has Apollo made to history. It's not often that you can foretell history, but I think we can in this case."
STEVE EMBER: But those hopes of human exploration deeper into space gave way to goals closer to home.
(SOUND: First Space Shuttle Launch)
The space shuttle has been NASA's manned launch vehicle since the first launch on April twelfth, nineteen eighty-one. The shuttle program has played an important part in expanding space science. Shuttle crews placed the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. They also performed five missions to repair and improve the observatory.
Shuttles have lifted numerous scientific instruments, observatories, satellites and probes into space. The largest object ever put into space -- the International Space Station -- could not have been built without the shuttle program.
BARBARA KLEIN: But after more than one hundred thirty flights, the space shuttles are being retired this year. That worries community leaders on the Space Coast -- the area around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They say ending the program will cost the area seven thousand jobs.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25