--- title: 30 Years of Space Shuttle: What Now? | TIME description: An entire generation grew up with the Space Shuttle. With the final launch of Atlantis on July 8th, the 30-year program comes to an end, with no clear future for NASA canonical: https://time.com/video/laksu0IT/ og:title: 30 Years of Space Shuttle: What Now? og:description: An entire generation grew up with the Space Shuttle. With the final launch of Atlantis on July 8th, the 30-year program comes to an end, with no clear future for NASA og:url: https://time.com/video/laksu0IT/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/laksu0IT/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 30 Years of Space Shuttle: What Now? twitter:description: An entire generation grew up with the Space Shuttle. With the final launch of Atlantis on July 8th, the 30-year program comes to an end, with no clear future for NASA twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/laksu0IT/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 30 Years of Space Shuttle: What Now? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 30 Years of Space Shuttle: What Now? [Watch (HLS stream): 30 Years of Space Shuttle: What Now?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/laksu0IT.m3u8) (5:37)  _Published 2011-07-05. An entire generation grew up with the Space Shuttle. With the final launch of Atlantis on July 8th, the 30-year program comes to an end, with no clear future for NASA_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:15 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [The Space Shuttle Atlantis Comes Home](/video/bpw2BWwt/) ### The Space Shuttle Atlantis Comes Home [Space Shuttle Enterprise Flyby](/video/GwHMWI8G/) ### Space Shuttle Enterprise Flyby [Layoffs and Hardship for Space-Shuttle Workers](/video/3QRyOoqM/) ### Layoffs and Hardship for Space-Shuttle Workers --- ## Transcript We have main engine starting. [ SOUND ] And liftoff. With this flight in July, the 134 flight of the shuttle program, for the last flight of the Atlantis, that's it for the shuttle program. And liftoff of Discovery on a bold new era. [ MUSIC ] Number of space flight between the United States and Russia. The shuttle began flying in April of 1981, during the third month of the Reagan administration. We're now in the third year of the Obama administration, three decades later. 777 people have been strapped in to those space craft and sent aloft. [ MUSIC ] The shuttles collectively have traveled far enough. To travel out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. [ MUSIC ] At liftoff up in [ INAUDIBLE ]. This has been a program defined by big numbers, by big dollars, essentially by its [ INAUDIBLE ]. Had NASA stuck to it's original plan, we probably would not have gone to the moon first. That was President Kennedy's idea. I'm landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. But now so would have started in earth orbit, established a space station and then got. And on to the moon. So, in a way the end of the shuttle era does reach all the way back into the 1950s. [ MUSIC ] We are beginning a new and exciting age. The shuttle was essentially announced shortly after the first moon landing in 1969 and it was intended to be a follow on vehicle that would make space travel. [ MUSIC ] Teen that would serve as a trucking service, essentially, to low Earth orbit. In its payload bay, it will eventually carry cargo up to 65, 000 pounds. And allow construction of the space station. And, and serve other routine functions. A new door to space. But in 1970, and particularly in early 71, President Nixon said; " We're not interested in building a space station ". We're not going to go forward with that program. And NASA was left with the only possibility of a major new program for the 1970s being the shuttle. [ SOUND ] Among the high points, I think, were all of the Hubble Telescope missions. The initial deployment and then the servicing missions when astronauts repeatedly came to update the space telescope and extend its lifetime. [ MUSIC ] Hubble is one of the greatest machines ever launched. It has yielded immeasurable amounts of information in the 20 some years it's been in service. And the shuttle has kept it going time and time again. [ SOUND ] To say, was the shuttle a success. It's a tricky question. [ SOUND ] Can it keep, American astronauts flying? Yes, but it was supposed to be, inexpensive, and it was supposed to be routine. The space shuttle. Our key to the routine and economical use of space. The day to day hype was, this would be a cheap, easy way to get into space. [ MUSIC ] You could fly the thing, you could bring it down, hose it off, kick the tires, gas it up and send it back around. But, there was supposed to be a turnaround time of as little as a couple of weeks. Now the external [ UNKNOWN ] will be jettison. This shuttle that we have been operating for 30 years is not all that reusable. Launch has remained prohibitively expensive. Anywhere from $ 400 to $ 500 million every time you set it up. [ MUSIC ] Two very memorable points in the shuttle history of course, were the Columbia and Challenger tragedies. Looks like a couple of the solid rocket. [ MUSIC ] The boosters blew away from the side of the shuttle. I remember very well the shock of both of those events and the feeling that it just couldn't possibly have happened. We had come to think of the space shuttle flights as being so normal. [ MUSIC ] Are all so routine, so safe. We on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003 in our report called the lack of replacement for a shuttle a failure in national leadership. And here we are eight years later and we still don't have a replacement. [ MUSIC ] The money's run out basically and that, you know, it really is truly the end of an era and it's a shame for the next generation. It is kind of discouraging to know that they're saying, oh, we're just gonna pull it, we're not going to do this, we're done. Fineato. [ MUSIC ] We're in a period of uncertainty right now because we don't really know yet what the next major enterprise in space will be. [ SOUND ] It's going to take a few years to formulate a new plan to go somewhere else and that uncertainty is what has a lot of people uneasy. [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] We can go back to space when we choose to, and we can go deep into space when we choose to just as going to the moon in the first place was a choice. [ MUSIC ] The key condition is we must choose to do it. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"30 Years of Space Shuttle: What Now?","description":"An entire generation grew up with the Space Shuttle. 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