Space shuttle Atlantis is seen as it launches from pad 39A on Friday, July 8, 2011 at the Kennedy Space Center Friday, July 8, 2011, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis is the 135th and final space shuttle launch for NASA.
Friday, July 8, 2011
This morning, the last American space shuttle to ever leave the ground launched into space. Because of budget cuts from the government and technological advancements, NASA is saying goodbye to its long space shuttle run. This will create many changes for students studying astronomy and aerospace engineering.
Steve Hawley, professor of physics and astronomy and former astronaut, has been to space five times. Hawley thinks students need to work extra hard because the job market in space engineering will be tough.
“There may not be as many jobs available. The best major for jobs is aerospace engineering. Architectural engineering students can also design habitats in space,” Hawley said.
Tristan Moody, doctoral student in mechanical engineering from Lawrence, was one of one hundred people hand-picked to watch Atlantis launch into space from a private NASA suite in Cape Canaveral, Fla. With his passion for space, Moody thinks this is not the end of space shuttles.
“They have plans for future missions. There are private companies who want to launch shuttles in the next three years,” Moody said.
Moody said the current situation for space isn’t the best.
Moody said that in 2003, there were 16,000 NASA employees, there is now 6,7000 employees and at the summer there is said to be about 1,000. Despite the downfall, Moody remains hopeful.
“We went to the moon 40 years ago, but only scratched the surface to what we are doing,” Moody said.
In order to go upward in this situation, Hawley advised students to work hard and strive for advanced degrees.
“If you don’t like math, you need to know how to do it. You need to love astronomy because that is what you will be doing in your career,” Hawley said.
Julian Bettoni, a junior in aerospace engineering from San Jose, Costa Rica, is also hopeful about the future.
“The space shuttle might be over, but the space shuttle can’t do everything,” Bettoni said.
NASA has been sending robots to conquer dangerous missions as well as trying to launch new technologies to help speed up the research process in space.
“Every time I see the movie Apollo 13 or watch documentaries with astronauts I think, ‘man I wish I could go to the moon,’” Bettoni said.
Moody has the same passion for space.
“Students need to dive into core math and science courses. They really have to love it to be able to do well, because they are all used in space engineering,” Moody said.
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Comments
Campus reacts to final space shuttle launch
Unfortunately, I was rather severely misquoted in this article. Nobody will be launching shuttles in the next three years. The shuttle program is over once this mission lands. Companies like SpaceX plan to start manned missions of their own over the next few years, but they will not be shuttles.
The reporter got a few other facts wrong in this article as well -- I was one of 150 @NASA followers on twitter who were selected to attend the NASATweetup, which took place at the Kennedy Space Center press site.
Furthermore, the job facts are misstated as well -- in 2003, there were over 16,000 shuttle jobs -- not all of these were NASA employees. Many, if not most of these, were United Space Alliance jobs. There are now about 6,700, and there will be about 1,000 by the end of the year. That says nothing about the rest of NASA, which does far, far more than just the space shuttle.
Tristan Moody
Campus reacts to final space shuttle launch
Two more problems with the article!
The short headline on the front page said "Last space shuttle launch, end of NASA", which is not really accurate since NASA has not been disbanded.
The headline for the article in the print edition said "Students not detoured by last launch".
Unless there is some definition of "detoured" that I am not aware of, I assume you meant "deterred".
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