The Space Shuttle Atlantis is now on its final mission and with it the Space Shuttle Program will come to an end. Although I know that they could not keep flying indefinitely, I still find myself saddened at the close of this chapter in our space program. It is a little more personal for me because in a very real way, I grew up with the Space Shuttle.I was born an raised on what is known as Florida's Space Coast. The house I grew up in was less than fifty miles away from the Kennedy Space Center. As a child I can remember watching rockets launched from my house. I recall the thrill of the first Space Shuttle launch when I was in kindergarten. Night launches were especially breathtaking; during blast-off it was like a small sun rising in the north, and you could literally follow the ship into space with your naked eye. An entire day of school was lost in fifth grade when Challenger exploded. What many in the country saw on their television screens, I saw over my head. It was a very cold but otherwise beautiful day in Florida, and in my mind's eye I can still see the bright sun shimmering off the debris as it fell into the Atlantic Ocean. The horror of that day was replaced by joy three years later when my whole school went out side and released balloons during the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery to celebrate the fact that America, as the newspaper headline read, was back in space!These childhood memories of something that was so big and so close to where I lived, again, certainly make this ending more sad for me than someone who did not share these experiences. Now, as the Space Shuttle Program concludes, we have nothing with which to replace it. This brings me to a fact that I find even more disheartening: that for the first time since the space program began in the late 1950's we actually have to stop and ask ourselves what's next?Unfortunately the current National Space Policy of the Obama administration does not adequately answer this question. Although it vaguely states that we can be sending crews to the Asteroid Belt in the late 2020's, and manned missions to Mars by the mid-2030's, it does not outline any specific spacecraft development, or mission-oriented milestones toward achieving these goals. In fact NASA's Constellation Program, which was designed for this purpose, was cancelled and replaced by this policy. This ultimately makes questionable our commitment and ability to embark on the next phase of human space exploration.In this matter, I agree with Neil Armstrong, who said about this policy:"For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature."Personally, I find this to be completely unacceptable. When the moon rises each night how many of the millions or perhaps billions of people who might look upon it realize that, of all the nations on the Earth, only an American flag stands there? How many others know that the farthest man-made object in space is Voyager 1, an American unmanned space probe. In 2014 or 2015 Voyager 1 will reach the heliopause and become the first, again American, spacecraft to truly reach interstellar space. Yet despite these and many other grand acheivements our country has made in its exploration of space, we now find ourselves in the position of having to pay the Russians to ferry our astronauts to the International Space Station. I fear that if this trend continues I will be telling my grandchildren the amazing story of the Apollo Program, while watching the flag of the People's Republic of China raised in a broadcast covering the first humans to land on Mars.If this comes to pass it would be tantamount to our surrendering the final frontier, and unworthy of our national heritage. From the pilgrims who settled in a new land, to the pioneers that pushed our country westward, the exploration and settlement of the unknown is part of America's DNA. During the space race, President John F. Kennedy boldy proclaimed our intention to put a man on the moon by famously stating that we were choosing to do so not because it was easy, but because it was hard. That it was a challenge great enough to measure the best of our abilities. That challenge is still there and continues to beckon us to reach farther and go higher, in the finest tradition of our forebears. I understand that in these difficult economic times, space exploration might seem like an unaffordable luxury. Perhaps if we had yet to develop a space program that would be true. However given our position as the leading spacefaring country I would argue that it is a necessary expenditure to maintain an essential part of our national character. At this time in space exploration America must continue to be a leader or risk becoming a follower, watching others claim our destiny. Surrendering the final frontier should not be an option.With respectful dedication to:Virgil "Gus" Grissom,Edward White,Roger Chaffee,Michael Smith,Dick Scobee,Ronald McNair,Ellison Onizuka,Christa McAuliffe,Gregory Jarvis,Judith Resnik,Rick Husband,William McCool,Michael Anderson,Ilian Ramon,Kalpana Chawla,David Brown, and Laurel Clark

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