An amazing view of NASA's last shuttle launch via screenshot.

Within minutes after NASA’s last shuttle launch, Atlantis STS-135 (an extraordinary piece of machinery) is moving at nearly 5 miles per second. From the time it takes you to start and finish your cigarette, or brew a pot of coffee, a handful of human beings have left the comfort of Earth’s atmosphere and entered into a place like no other, traveling at speeds no one can fathom. For the record, this isn’t going to be a piece on the intersection of science and religion, or how irrationality ruins scientific drive, but rather, this is a tribute to one of the greatest endeavors humans have ever undergone. A tribute to the shear awesomeness of intellectual ability, scientific progress, and communal effort that is the NASA Space Shuttle Program.

As I sat in my office Friday morning, July 7th, watching Live NASA TV on my 13″ laptop with crummy headphones and internet bufferings, I teared up. Not really because this was the final launch or because politics has come to take yet another great thing from humanity (although when I let myself think too much about it, I do get rather emotional), but really because I’ve come to the complete admiration for what these hundreds/thousands of scientists, engineers, janitors, secretaries, and machinists have accomplished. Take a minute to yourself and think how unbelievably ridiculous it is for so many people from so many backgrounds to come together and produce something that can carry a living being to a place that is so far away, so harsh to life, and return them safely…all while continuing to perform sound, meaningful, scientific research. You’d have to be a heartless, ignorant, selfish person to shrug this off as a waste of taxpayer money.

So, what’s next? What’s next for NASA, space flight, and space research? Well, all hope is not lost. And, to be honest, I’m a little bit excited for the future. Let me push my own political and economic opinions aside for a moment (I’m referring to the privatization that is occurring within NASA) and focus on the science. NASA has so much awesome research happening that deals with propulsion technology, off-Earth habitat development, fundamental cosmology and astrophysics, and so much more…the list is long. Along with so many other publicly funded and run research institutions, NASA will continue to be one of the best.

With that being said, I’d like to finish with this: I don’t think anyone can breed or teach this sense of curiosity and awe when it comes to such immense, intricate science. Inherently, within all of us, we yearn for moments like these. Throughout centuries, through all of the modern technological advances that make our lives what they are today, we have evolved into a species that needs moments like these. We’re humans. We are natural scientists. Cooking new recipes, using your GPS to navigate unfamiliar cities, starting life over in an unfamiliar place with no friends…these are all experiments that coincide with our innate ability to do science, along with the exploration of the harsh environments of space and other worlds. For those of you who are reading this, and don’t have a genuine appreciation for the way science is done, look again. Take another look at your life and take note of every daily occurrence like the ones I previously mentioned. This is why we are natural scientists. Trile nd rror. Trial nad rerro. Trial and Error.