Space shuttle retirement prompts space veterans with Syracuse ties to ask, What's next?

Syracuse, NY -- The beginning of the end is supposed to come today for America’s space shuttle program.

Weather permitting and barring technical problems, Atlantis will lift off at 11:26 a.m. Four astronauts are to spend 12 days in Earth orbit, restocking the International Space Station and experimenting with a refueling station for satellites. After they land, Atlantis will be retired. She and her surviving sisters, Discovery and Endeavour, will head off to museums.

What happens to America’s manned space program after that is less certain, say Eileen Collins, Story Musgrave and W. Henry Lambright.(space shuttle launch, shuttle, shuttle launch, nasa, nasa shuttle launch )

America needs to keep exploring space, both with robots and with people, say Collins and Musgrave, both veteran shuttle astronauts and Syracuse University graduates. Lambright, a public administration and political science professor at SU’s Maxwell School who has advised NASA on the history of space exploration, agrees.
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