THAT'S IT, FOLKS: Atlantis lands for final time, marking end to 30-year program. The LA Times reports:

With Commander Chris Ferguson at the helm, Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 a.m. in perfect, cloudless, windless weather. When its wheels stopped a minute later NASA saluted 30 years of triumph and tragedy for a shuttle program that has kept the United States at the forefront of manned space flight since 1981, but is over.

"The space shuttle changed the way we view the world and changed the way we view the universe," Ferguson said. "We have emotion today but one thing is indisputable: America is not going to stop exploring.

Although I generally find myself with a feeling of "yeah, but what's the point?" when it comes to space exploration of all sorts, I must say that there's something oddly 'cool' (a word I must resort to using in this context, due to the abject poverty of the English language in these matters) about exactly this. The space shuttle program has been widely and roundly criticised; not for its lack of significant achievements, but more their lack of practical application. But I suppose that the real appeal isn't in the science of it, it's in proving that we, as a civilization, can do it. That's all. Anyway, it's over now. And that was that, everyone.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God." — Seeing images of the landing reminds me of this quote, marking one of the lower points in the space shuttle program's thirty years, the Challenger Disaster. Ronald Reagan spoke these words in his televised address to the nation, which was written by Peggy Noonan.