End of  an Era 

Tomorrow marks the end of an era: the final flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and  the 135th and last mission of the NASA space shuttle program.

A lot of us grew up with the space shuttle program, yearning and dreaming to reach the stars. The space shuttle and the space science programs inspired many a student to pursue higher education in aeronautical and aerospace sciences. There was the HABET  (high altitude balloon experiments in technology)  program at Iowa State University in the Space Systems and Controls Lab or the CUBESAT program at CalPoly: an innovative program wholly run by students to design, construct, test, launch, and operate miniature satellites for space research. It was a time of great inspiration. I still remember all those years of getting the applications for the astronaut program that never made it to NASA.

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