'Shuttle Discovery makes Washington flypast'

I think that stopping America's 30-year orbiter programme is a bad thing. Stopping the programme would be stopping all the research in space. We wouldn't be able to see or know about the things happening in space. It limits our exploration in space, not having the programme. "The space shuttle changed the way we view the world and it changed the way we view the Universe," said commander Chris Ferguson on landing. The program costs to much to maintain that the retirement of Nasa's iconic shuttle fleet was ordered by the US government, in part due to the high cost of maintaining the ships. The effect of canceling the program is that billions of dollars were spent that allowed NASA to fly the space shuttle and now that the program is being retired. So many people have lost their jobs, homes, and many people have lost their lives. And now they don't have anywhere to work to get enough money since the economy is so bad. But the benefits of the program are that they discovered so many things in space, they have made space vehicles, and even made a tracking satellite system. The shuttle has carried more than three million pounds of cargo and more than 600 crewmembers into space. Hundreds of scientific experiments were conducted in orbit. Shuttle crews also serviced and repaired satellites as needed, particularly the Hubble Space Telescope. Between 1995 and 1998 shuttles docked nine times with the Russian space station Mir. Flights to construct the International Space Station (ISS) began in 1998. Shuttles carried major pieces of the ISS into space and traveled to the station seventeen times through the end of 2005.They discovered that Pluto isn't even a planet. Without the Space program we would have never knew all the things we know now in space. Although with all these accomplishments the shuttle has not met many of the original goals that NASA set for the program. The decision leaves the country with no means of putting astronauts in orbit. In the interim, Nasa will rely on the Russians to ferry its people to and from the International Space Station (ISS). I really think that one of the shuttles should be given to Houston since it is known worldwide as the  Space Center of the United States. Houston is the home of the Johnson Space Center, the headquarters for the space program. It is the main place that people think of when it comes to the Space Center. I think the only reason why they put one of the shuttles in New York and not in Houston is because theres always a lot of tourists there and the Space Shuttle would attract more and more people.