Welcome Home Atlantis, Goodbye Space Shuttle Program.

It's the end of an era. This morning at approximately 6 AM, Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135), and the Space Shuttle Program in itself, made its final landing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Space Shuttle's 30 years of spaceflight have come to an end.

Credit: NASA, Bill Ingalls, from Space.com

Many believe that this is a terrible time for NASA, and that the US is simply out of the space industry without a vehicle for manned spaceflight. While I do agree that this will be a difficult time for NASA and for those with an interest in American spaceflight, I think the end of the Space Shuttle program is a gate opening for new things. New technology, new ideas, new possibilities.