America's shuttle programme has ended and its four remaining vehicles are being delivered to museums on the backs of jumbo jets. On April 27th, 2012, one landed in New York
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At 10am on a clear Friday morning a few hundred enthusiasts in downtown Manhattan greeted the final flight of the space shuttle Enterprise. The Enterprise never went to space - it was used for testing and it is one of the four remaining NASA shuttles that will live permanently in museums across the country. This summer it will retire to the deck of the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum a decommissioned aircraft carrier on the Hudson River.
The shuttle is a glider and cannot fly on its own - instead it piggy backs or rides on the back of a NASA 747 jumbo jet. The metaphor is apt. If America has a future in space it will be led by private enterprise picking up where public funding ends.
Several firms are already taking advantage of the opportunity. SpaceX founded by Elon Musk will send its Falcon 9 rocket to dock with the International Space Station soon, and others will follow. After 30 years, 306 men and 49 women in space, and a cost of around one hundred and fourteen billion dollars, America's shuttle program is officially over.
But there will probably always be young astronauts hoping to continue exploring.
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