If I was even a remotely sentimental person, I’d probably have a tear welling up in my eye while writing this.   Today, NASA conducted what is effectively the final test burn of the reusable solid rocket boosters used to thrust the Space Shuttle into orbit.  The test, carried out by ATK Launch Systems in Utah and the 52nd of its kind, fired the rocket for 123 seconds, the exact amount of time the solid rocket boosters burn during liftoff.   All test parameters were successfully met, thus clearing the way for the final shuttle launch later this year.

“The space shuttle’s reusable solid rocket motor is the largest solid rocket motor ever flown, the only one rated for human flight and the first designed for reuse. Each shuttle launch requires the boost of two reusable solid rocket motors to lift the 4.5-million-pound shuttle vehicle. During space shuttle flights, solid rocket motors provide 80 percent of the thrust during the first two minutes of flight. Each motor, the primary component of the shuttle’s twin solid rocket boosters, generates an average thrust of 2.6 million pounds and is just over 126 feet long and 12 feet in diameter.”

For many people including myself, the Space Shuttle is the only crewed American space vehicle we’ve ever known.   I grew up awed by spectacular launches viewed on TV, and for years displayed posters of both day and nighttime shuttle launches on the walls of my bedroom.   The shuttle’s unique aerodynamic form, strongly defined by its solid rocket boosters and winged glider, was the world’s first spacecraft that departed from the familiar “pod-on-a-pole” configuration used by NASA’s prior space missions.  Because of its resemblance to fighter jets and futuristic sci-fi spaceships, imaginations could easily cling and relate to what the shuttle represented and the dreams it imposed.

Although upgraded several times throughout its three decades of operation, the shuttle and its portion of the American space program remained vastly unchanged.   It represents a culture whose space exploration goals were lofty and required equally lofty machinery to meet them.   But instead of building upon the huge potential of the Space Shuttle as a stepping stone for further reaching manned space exploration, NASA’s priorities languished as a reflection of decreasing popular, and thus congressional, support.   The shuttle, at least until the International Space Station came along, was reduced to a ship without a port.  NASA now seems more committed than ever to explore the solar system with unmanned robots.

Who knows, maybe these space robots will inspire the next generation in some unforeseen way.   Maybe the next hit sci-fi series will be about a lonesome rover roaming a distant planet.  Either way, the Space Shuttle’s inspirational legacy won’t soon be forgotten.