Shuttle Era Over

Space shuttle Atlantis safely landed early this morning at Cape Kennedy, thus ending the shuttle era.

No doubt predictably, the shuttle program has gotten more attention from the major networks' nightly newscasts during this last mission than it has since the Columbia tragedy more than eight years ago. Watching how-- or if-- those news organizations cover NASA astronauts hitching rides on Soyuz capsules will be interesting. Similarly, watching for coverage of the development of new manned spacecraft by NASA and by private companies will by an indicaton of how seriously the media takes space policy-- and by extension, how interested the media think the American people are in it.