--- title: Mood and Meaning at the Final Shuttle Launch | TIME description: TIME Science editor Jeffrey Kluger talks about how the euphoric mood at the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis was tempered by the reality of the challenges ahead for NASA canonical: https://time.com/video/OUYulq7s/ og:title: Mood and Meaning at the Final Shuttle Launch og:description: TIME Science editor Jeffrey Kluger talks about how the euphoric mood at the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis was tempered by the reality of the challenges ahead for NASA og:url: https://time.com/video/OUYulq7s/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/OUYulq7s/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mood and Meaning at the Final Shuttle Launch twitter:description: TIME Science editor Jeffrey Kluger talks about how the euphoric mood at the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis was tempered by the reality of the challenges ahead for NASA twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/OUYulq7s/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Mood and Meaning at the Final Shuttle Launch > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Mood and Meaning at the Final Shuttle Launch [Watch (HLS stream): Mood and Meaning at the Final Shuttle Launch](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/OUYulq7s.m3u8) (2:40)  _Published 2011-07-09. TIME Science editor Jeffrey Kluger talks about how the euphoric mood at the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis was tempered by the reality of the challenges ahead for NASA_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:15 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Challenger: The Science of a Shuttle Disaster](/video/bnipliOt/) ### Challenger: The Science of a Shuttle Disaster [The Space Shuttle Atlantis Comes Home](/video/bpw2BWwt/) ### The Space Shuttle Atlantis Comes Home [The Final Shuttle to Hubble](/video/3OpSEbB3/) ### The Final Shuttle to Hubble --- ## Transcript All three engines up and burning, two, one, zero, and liftoff, the final liftoff of Atlantis the shoulders of the space shuttle America will continue the dream. The final shuttle took off at 11: 29 a. m. with a brief scare, but when the clock stopped at, with 31 seconds to go, they were simply trying to work out getting the retractable cap off the top of the external tank in time. That was resolved quickly. It took off. It was a nominal flight, as NASA likes to say, which means perfect. Four and a half million pounds of hardware and humans taking aim on the International Space Station. This mission is principally a resupply mission. They'll be bringing literally tons of supplies up to the International Space Station and leaving them aboard, doing a little bit work, of work on board themselves. They will be basically getting the station ready for a long term life span without a shuttle to service it. From now on in, it will be Russian Soyuz spacecraft that will be servicing the station until we until we have our own lower orbit vehicles back online. But there was a great turn of people here today. NASA made a lot of dignitaries available. Wouldn't it be better to, to to have a firmer date and a singular focus instead of. There were astronauts here to be talked to in their tell- tale blue jumpsuits, which made them very easy to identify. These are the folks that rode the pony for the last 30 years. And, I think there was a lot of valedictory admiration of them today. Lori Garver, deputy administrator was here this morning. And she's got a fine line to walk, because the line she's selling is that, you know, this is a, a, a grand moment for NASA, and in many respects it is. But the future is murky she and the agency as a whole have to wrestle a lot of cats here. There's a recalcitrant Congress. There are tough budgets. There are constituencies that do and don't want future space craft built. And there's technology. How long is it going to take to get a new heavy- lift booster designed and built. How long is it going to take the private sector to do their part? There's a lot of things that are x- factors at the moment. So while you see a lot of happiness here today, you see almost every NASA official being cautiously hopeful, but not terribly specific. Houston now controlling the flight of Atlantis. 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