Summary: The landing of the space shuttle Atlantis on July 21st 2011 marked the end of the Space Shuttle program for the U.S. In this podcast, the good guys discuss why this happened and what this really means to the future of space exploration. Puff steps up bigtime in the first challenge of the new season and also proposes a somber but significant new challenge (see links below). Thanks for listening! http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/07/30-years-of-manned-space-flight-the-last-flight-of-the-space-shuttle.ars/2 Astronaut Bruce McCandless II flying hundreds of meters from Challenger with the MMU (manned maneuvering unit) Photo from Arstechnica.com: http://boingboing.net/2007/07/25/top-ten-spacewalks.html How much does the space program cost us? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA What are we going to do next? http://www.pcworld.com/article/227921/the_shuttle_program_is_winding_downwhat_next.html http://mashable.com/2011/09/23/nasa-space-exploration-plans/ NEW CHALLENGE LINKS! Advanced Directive Questions/info: http://www.putitinwriting.org/putitinwriting_app/index.jsp State Specific: http://www.caringinfo.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3289
