What a Day! From Earth to the Moon and Mars - The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society

Mission accomplished! It's been thirty great years for the Space Shuttle program. With this venerable space vehicle retired, it's on to the next adventure.

The Shuttle has taken more than 10,400 1,600 tons into orbit, a fantastic legacy, as most of that equipment is still up there helping astronauts do their jobs. But now it's time to move up and on — outward. We can make new discoveries peering beyond new horizons.

Along with the Shuttle's final landing tonight, or early tomorrow morning, it's good to take a moment and reflect on the first humans to walk on the Earth's Moon. It was 42 years ago today. It changed the world. The Cold War wound down a few turns as a result. It changed all of our expectations about what is possible, what humans can do, and especially what we can do in space exploration. Perhaps we'll go back to the Moon in the next few years. Perhaps we'll go beyond the Moon out into deep space."

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