It Really Is The Final Frontier

I just finished watching the space shuttle Atlantis take off and it's always a breathtaking sight. I know a lot of people view this as a waste of money, but I'm not one of them. I love space flight. We've gone just about everywhere we can on this planet. Space is the future of mankind. Every time I see one of the launches it fills me with a sense of pride and hope. We're taking humans and putting them where we shouldn't be able to go. It shows there are no limits what we can do when we put our mind to something. Of course I'd like to see it done in a cheaper and safer fashion, and I think we will. In the next 5-10 the shuttle as we know it will be retired and something more efficient will take it's place.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space...
...put out my hand, and touched the face of God.