The last shuttle flight took off majestically with a plume of fire, disappearing into the clouds within forty seconds into its last man-made exploration, perhaps a fitting metaphor for its meteoric rise and fall. The crew consisted of three men and a woman, a precautionary move in case technical difficulties stranded them in space. It would cost the United States $63 million for each astronaut that the Russian Soyuz would return to earth. We have become mere passengers, taking a back seat to Russia’s leading role and military ambitions in cosmos.
