STS-129 Home

Space shuttle Atlantis landed safely in Florida this morning, ending a nearly flawlessly executed STS-129 mission that delivered 15 tons of equopment and supplies to ISS.

That leaves five scheduled shuttle missions left in the program. The next one is scheduled for February, so it's still possible NASA could wrap up the program in 2010, but more likely the last flight or two will slip into 2011. Congress seems willing to fund such an extension, but why wouldn't it? After spending hundreds of billions-- at least-- over the latest few years over and above an already huge federal budget with a large deficit feeding a staggering national debt, four or five billion more to fly the the last couple shuttle missions is chump change.

What happens to NASA's human spaceflight program after the shuttle, however, is still open to question. Some interesting ideas are floating around, but the Obama administration has yet to make the decision.