The end of the shuttle era

Simon Levey interviewed four researchers from Imperial College London’s Department of Physics and Department of Earth Science and Engineering

On Thursday 21 July 2011, a NASA shuttle returned from space for the 135th and very last time. Since the first shuttle launch in 1981, Atlantis and her sisters, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Endeavour have been symbolic of human scientific ambition and achievement: at once powerful, awe-inspiring and costly.

What does the end to the shuttle programme mean for space exploration and the next generation of enquiring scientific minds?

Simon Levey interviewed four researchers from Imperial College London’s Department of Physics and Department of Earth Science and Engineering, looking back at their memories of man’s space adventures, in particular the shuttle programme, and recalling how these have affected and inspired them.

Read the interviews:

• Tim Horbury, Professor in Space & Atmospheric Physics and Principal Investigator of the Solar Orbiter magnetometer investigation
• Dr Jonathan Eastwood, Advanced Fellow of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the Department of Physics
• André Balogh is a Distinguished Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor in the Department of Physics.
• Dr Nicholas Warner, Research Associate in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering

Image from NASA