Flawless Landing Ends Space Shuttle Program; As Shuttle Exits, Deep Space Calls; Commercial Space Exploration; 30 Years of Shuttle in Pictures
GORANI: Many dreamers felt lumps in their throats as they watched this.</s>ROB NAVIAS, STS-135 DESCENT COMMENTATOR: Main gear touchdown. Hurley now deploying the drag chute.</s>GORANI: Thursday's picture-perfect landing of "Atlantis," the last ever US Space Shuttle. Welcome back, everyone. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Phrases like, "It was an honor," "the end of an era," "an emotional farewell" are very much in the air today, as cliched as they are, especially for the thousands of people at NASA who made the Space Shuttle live for the past three decades. For them, today's flawless landing was a moment of poignant dignity. They won't get to do this again. Ed Lavandera had a special view from NASA's Mission Control in Houston.</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the thousands of NASA employees who work here at Johnson Space Center in Houston, this final Space Shuttle landing has been an emotional adventure. Hundreds of people turned out this morning for a viewing party on the grounds here of the NASA campus. Inside, Mission Control, in this building behind me, family and friends of the flight directors turned out to watch their loved ones work for the final time. And it wasn't until about 45 minutes after the Space Shuttle "Atlantis" landed that the flight director, Tony Ceccacci, spoke to his team in an emotional way.</s>TONY CECCACCI, ENTRY FLIGHT LEADER, NASA: Today is also a moment in the history books. Those books will talk about the amazing work of the flight control teams over the past 30 years. The work done in this room, in this building, will never again be duplicated. I believe that the accomplishments of the Shuttle Program will become the next set of shoulder of giants for the future programs to stand on. Hold your heads up high with pride as we close out the Space Shuttle Program. You have earned it. To all, like I always say, savor the moment, soak it in, and know you are the best. The best in the world. Your work here has made America and the world a better place.</s>LAVANDERA (voice-over): After Tony Ceccacci spoke to his flight team, it was a fascinating scene that unfolded inside Mission Control. More than a hundred NASA employees filled up Mission Control. Hugs, people shaking hands, there was a cake brought in in the shape of the Space Shuttle "Atlantis." There were flowers and cigars, even, brought in, a box of cigars brought in and passed around between many of the workers. Clearly, this is the emotional moment that has finally sunk in for these folks who have spent so many years dedicated to the Space Shuttle missions.</s>LAVANDERA (on camera): And watching the Space Shuttle "Atlantis" crew un -- deboard and come off that final Shuttle mission, it really sank in here, this final moment -- in these final moments for the thousands of employees who have worked for the Space Shuttle Program for the last 30 years. Ed Lavandera, CNN, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.</s>GORANI: Well, America's long history of human space flight isn't over until it's over. NASA's chief, Charlie Bolden, a former Shuttle astronaut in his own right told CNN, quote, "This isn't the end for the workforce here." He says the Shuttle Program may be flown out, but deep space is calling. Now, you are looking at an artist's take on NASA's new multipurpose crew vehicle. The space agency wants to take human beings to Mars. But the first test flight is five years away. NASA's also playing a part in the development of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser. It could provide crews with transport to and from low Earth orbit. And this is the SpaceX Dragon. It's already had a practice run. No people were onboard, though. And commercial companies could be the ones to pick up the slack when government money for space exploration is in short supply. After all, Richard Branson hopes to fly tourists to outer space within the next 18 months. So, could this actually be the next great era of discovery, commercial space exploration? CNN's John Zarrella has been covering space for three decades, and he takes a closer look at that angle.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elon Musk runs SpaceX. Richard Branson heads Virgin Galactic. Both are using their considerable wealth to back bold attempts to make space travel as routine as boarding an airplane.</s>RICHARD BRANSON, VIRGIN GALACTIC: People used to say to me, look, it'd be impossible to build your own spaceship and your own spaceship company and be able to take people into space. And that's the kind of challenge that I love to sort of prove them wrong.</s>ELON MUSK, SPACEX: We want to see a future where we are exploring the stars, where we're going to other planets, where we're doing the great things that we read about in science fiction and in the movies.</s>ZARRELLA: There are several companies, some big, some small, who see, as NASA moves on to distant planets, that weightless region just above the atmosphere. Just out of reach right now, becoming quite possibly a good investment.</s>GEORGE MUSSER, "SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN" MAGAZINE: NASA's still in there, it's still going to develop a heavy lift rocket, but we've also got this, hopefully, flowering private space flight. And that's what's going to get us the Hiltons and the Hertz rental cars and whatever in orbit.</s>ZARRELLA: SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are on the verge of not just opening --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liftoff!</s>ZARRELLA: -- but stepping through that door to the future.</s>MUSK: We want to make space accessible to everyone. That's a revolutionary change, but it's incredibly exciting. And it brings space -- the possibility of space travel to all Americans, which is fantastic.</s>ZARRELLA: Next year, Musk hopes to begin carrying cargo to the International Space Station. Eventually, astronauts. A commercial company replacing the Space Shuttle.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Confirmed, docking is complete.</s>MUSK: We believe firmly we can send astronauts to the Space Station within three years of receiving a NASA contract to do so.</s>ZARRELLA: But unless it's safe, NASA's administrator says no US astronaut will be onboard.</s>CHARLES BOLDEN, ADMINISTRATOR, NASA: I cannot allow them to put us in jeopardy by not focusing on crew safety and the like. That's my job.</s>ZARRELLA: The stakes are high. There is no turning back.</s>BRANSON: Please welcome the future of space travel.</s>ZARRELLA: With Shuttle retired and astronauts left to ride in Russian space ships, NASA is counting on commercial companies to get it right, make it work. And the more who make it work, the more affordable it will become.</s>BRANSON: That's the end of a particular era. And it's up to individuals like myself, if you're in a position to be able to achieve wonderful things, not to waste that position.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Finish, down the lock.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liftoff for the Falcon 9.</s>GORANI: Well, we've all heard Oscar Wilde's saying, "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." So, it seems especially appropriate this evening to bring you the images from the press photographers who've been looking up for the past 30 years at this Shuttle Program.</s>NASA LAUNCH ANNOUNCER: Liftoff of America's first Space Shuttle. And the Shuttle has cleared the tower.</s>SCOTT ANDREWS, PHOTOGRAPHER, CANON: I do this for history, I think, more than anything.</s>RED HUBER, PHOTOTAGRAPHER, "ORLANDO SENTINEL": I've tried to show how man and machine coexist on the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.</s>PHILIP ANDREWS, PHOTOGRAPHER: It's an incredible amount of work, but I think the payoff's worth it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, here's a clamp and a ball head.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just grab that one.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.</s>SCOTT ANDREWS: It's 6:00 in the morning, we go out with all our remote gear, and we head out for the filed, placing all our cameras in their appointed positions.</s>SCOTT ANDERWS: I built this trigger, and the AP adopted it and other people began to adopt it, and it became sort of like an easier way to capture the Shuttle from close up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my -- this is my remote.</s>PHILIP ANDREWS: The timer's off by like five minutes. So little of photography is actually pushing the shutter button. Out here, we don't even press the button, right? We have to invent technology to press the button for us because we can't do it.</s>NASA LAUNCH ANNOUNCER: Booster ignition, and the final liftoff of "Discovery."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a mount 2, it's a 7-D with a wireless transmitter.</s>SCOTT ANDREWS: We're not normally like this at home. We're just excited to be here. So, normally an hour and a half to two hours after the launch, we'll head out to get our cameras.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.</s>SCOTT ANDREWS: Hey, at least it worked.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, after six years of trying to get it.</s>SCOTT ANDREWS: James Neilsen from the "Houston Chronicle" has wanted to take this picture for years of the Shuttle. It just begins to pop out of that smoke.</s>UNIDENTIFED MALE: Let's make it work.</s>SCOTT ANDREWS: We'll play it later. We've worked here for nearly 30 years with Red Huber, Mike Brown. Red Huber from the "Orlando Sentinel," Mike Brown from "Florida Today." Joe Skipper from Reuters. Phil Sandlin for years with the AP. Anyway, I can go on and on and on.</s>HUBER: We are trying to be competitive, but we all try to help each other, too.</s>SCOTT ANDREWS: Here we're working photographing the decisive moment remotely.</s>HUBER: My main goal is always to bring the reader something different that they can't see on TV. And you've got that frozen moment in time.</s>SCOTT ANDREWS: But there's a challenge to recording history, and if you can do it a little bit differently so that future generations will benefit from it.</s>GORANI: All right, up next we'll head off to Lebanon to meet a Green Pioneer of sorts. Stay with us. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD.