<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018The most visible legacy will be the International Space Station. When it\u2019s completed, we\u2019ll see it as a star in the sky, even during the day,\u2019 noted Lightfoot in MSFC\u2019s internal magazine Marshall Star<\/i>. \u2018It will be huge, the size of two football fields. That, plus the hardware we\u2019ve developed through the program. And that continues with the Constellation Program.\u2019<\/p>\n MSFC\u2019s role in NASA\u2019s future has already begun, with their leading role in the development of the Ares I, under the guidance of the aforementioned Constellation Program, which is incorporating Shuttle workers who are already making the transition.<\/p>\n \u2018A less visible legacy is the workforce we leave this agency to go on into the future. It\u2019s the workforce that, through positive and negative experiences, has learned a lot and is prepared to take the next step,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n \u2018The Constellation Program is exciting, real cool, and it will present some pretty big challenges. Our success will enable their future and we know we need to be successful.\u2019 <\/p>\n <\/font><\/font> <\/p>\n Looking back at the \u2018amazing\u2019 Shuttle, Lightfoot described the vehicles as an \u2018enabler\u2019 \u2013 which will live on with the Constellation Program, through the lessons learned during the three decades the Shuttle has flown. <\/font><\/p>\n \u2018There are the great observatories we\u2019ve been able to develop \u2013 Hubble, Chandra \u2013 because of this remarkable vehicle. We\u2019re still learning things about the shuttle, but we owe a debt of gratitude to those who designed it back in the 1970s. It\u2019s truly an amazing machine. <\/p>\n \u2018The shuttle itself is an enabler. It enabled us to build the station. We get 13-14 days in space with shuttle and we\u2019re just one day away from home. When we complete the station, we\u2019ll have people on orbit six months and still just one day away from home. Farther away, the longer it will take to get home. <\/p>\n \u2018But the research in low-Earth orbit prepares for how to live on the moon and Mars in the future. How we do maintenance on station is directly applicable to how we do maintenance on the moon. The shuttle is an enabler of all that. Once it\u2019s retired, it will be known as the only vehicle capable of that. And all that will have happened in only 30 years!\u2019<\/p>\n The Shuttle has its critics, mainly due to the huge costs associated with what is still very much a test vehicle. This led Lightfoot to note that while the vehicle\u2019s legacy deserves to be noted, work will continue to be required to ensure a safe finale to Shuttle operations \u2013 all the way until wheel stop on the final mission in 2010.<\/font><\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s pretty amazing, especially when you think it was just over 100 years ago that we took to flight for the first time,\u2019 he added. \u2018One of Wayne Hale\u2019s favorite sayings is, \u2018We put the agency at risk every time we fly.\u2019 But our success is a predecessor to every success coming. That\u2019s not pressure, but a responsibility. It\u2019s what we\u2019re supposed to do and folks accept it with open arms. <\/font><\/p>\n \u2018When we finally finish in 2010, I think it will be incredibly sweet, but maybe more bittersweet. We have forged a great many friendships and established personal relationships we\u2019d never otherwise be able to. We know at the end things won\u2019t be the same again. <\/font><\/p>\n \u2018But for now we don\u2019t want to focus on our legacy too much. We\u2019re so busy trying to finish what we\u2019re doing and we\u2019ve got lots to do between now and then. And we\u2019re not going to stop until the wheels stop on the last mission.\u2019<\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/font> **NASASpaceflight.com Job Opportunities**<\/em><\/font> <\/font> <\/u><\/p>\n <\/em><\/font><\/p>\n <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the Space Shuttle returns to regular flight operations with the first International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission since Columbia set to launch at the weekend, it will also mark the beginning of the end for what are still the most complex machines ever built by man. Atlantis\u2019 launch on Sunday will be another step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
**Full transcript available on L2.**<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n<\/font><\/p>\n
<\/em><\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n
<\/em><\/font><\/em><\/font>
<\/em><\/font>
<\/em><\/font>LIVE UPDATE PAGES<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n