That was the last flight of Discovery....Endeavour is due to go up April 19th, and Atlantis is scheduled to go up June 28th. And then I believe that is it, the end of an era.
I can remember like it was yesterday, sitting in Grade 9 History (and homeroom) and my teacher coming in to give us the news that Challenger had exploded. I raced home after school as fast as I could and watched replays over and over...such a sad and tragic day.
I then remembered watching live of Columbia breaking up on re-entry.
I know that it takes a ton of cash to keep these shuttles going, but not having them is going to put space exploration back decades, not that they were the most capable spacecraft, but without them we wouldn't have the ISS, or Hubble, among other things. And yes while the Challenger and Columbia accidents were tragic, they served as a reminder that space travel isn't like going down to your local 7/11 for a quart of milk, it is a dangerous job, and the accidents led to safer space travel with the shuttles.
I truly believe it is more a gov't not wanting to spend the cash to keep them flying rather than the ability of the shuttles to keep flying. NASA is going to be hand cuffed for quite some time with the loss of the shuttles!! Going to be a very sad day indeed with Atlantis touches back down to earth for the last time and effectively ends the US's ability to travel into space. From then on they will be relying on Russian Soyuz shots to take people on and off the ISS.