Space Exploration

The Atlantis, NASA’s last space shuttle that launched last Friday from Cape Canaveral, closes a cycle of three decades of space exploration by the United States through this manned, multipurpose vehicle. It marks an era in the complex and costly exploration of space.

The four crew members and critical supplies are headed for the International Space Station, which is in the earth’s orbit and has transported Atlantis in its 12-day mission. This 135th flight carried out by these types of spacecraft turns a page in human history in the search for knowledge of the cosmos.

However, it is also a point of inflection that poses large questions over the continuation of the American space program.

When Atlantis and its four astronauts return to Earth in 10 days, the United States will no longer have a ship to replace its space shuttles to take supplies and equipment to its scientists at the International Space Station. The station is utilized by 16 countries and orbits around the planet. The issue will turn into one of political integration and

complementation because NASA will be left to the mercy of other space powers’ transportation, a development led by Russia.

The great American space shuttles, which will now be scrapped, represented the second era of manned spaceflight after the journeys of Apollo in the 1970s when the U.S. was at the forefront of the space race with the moonwalk.