>>The space shuttle program revolutionized human space travel thanks to its five reusable orbiters.

From the first launch of space shuttle Columbia just behind me in 1981 to the construction of the International Space Station.

The legacy of the space shuttle program continues to inspire the next generation of spaceflight.

>>That ripple effect that we had in the 60s, where the communities on the mainland and Merritt Island and Cocoa Beach and the city of Cape Canaveral are expanding and expanding, expanding the circles are contracting in the 1970s because folks had moved away, and we really don't see that expansion again until the space shuttle program.

>>With the shuttle program came a new generation of engineers and construction workers who shared the enthusiasm of their season managers.

>>You know that what you do is just as important as somebody that's in that control room on launch day, with a headset and a speaking role and cameras on him.

You you do know that, and you should know that.

And when everything works, you ought to take just as much pride of accomplishment as those folks that are in the control room with the highly visible jobs, and that's what made it work to me.

Everybody kne that, yeah, they are important.

>>The first shuttle since, yeah, we didn't have any flights before it was manned.

My gosh, you know, here we all say have we made a huge mistake?

Yet I kept dreaming of a peeling apart like a banana peel.

It lifts off and here goes the solids over here.

And here goes a tank here.

And here comes the auger over here.

Never happened that way.

>>I'd be in the firing room for launch and hop on an airplane and go to California to try to be there for the first landing opportunity.

It was interesting that not nearly as much attention seemed to be played to the landing as it is to the launch when it was pretty harrowing also.

>>When you experienced something like that, you can feel the power and there's an extraordinary amount of pride.

And if you're nine miles away across the water, you can still feel that in your chest.

>>Boost for ignition.

And the final liftoff of Discovery, a tribute to the dedication, hard work and pride of America's space shuttle team.

The shuttle has cleared the tower.

>>The power that we have in terms of science, with the International Space Station, the amount of data that we've gathered now over those 18 going on 19 years, the longitudinal studie that we've been able to do, ISS has been permanently manned since the year 2000.

That's decades worth of work.

And that's just what we're doing in near Earth orbit.

The probes that we've been able to sen to other planets, the potential of going back to the moon an the potential of going to Mars.

I don't think we know the extent of it yet.

>>We know you're only as good as your next launch.

The last launch went fine, and that's good, but everything's riding on the next one anyway, so inherently that's still in here and in here.

It's got to go well.

>>You stop and you say, jeez, that was a good launch, but hold it, we got another one next.

And and you're off on to that.

>>It was like, okay, that's gone.

What's next?

>>Atlantis flew the final mission of the space shuttle program, STS 135, landing here at the Kennedy Space Center on the morning of July 21st, 2011.

I had the good fortune of being here on the press mount.

I will never forget the sound of those twin sonic booms piercing the atmosphere, letting us know Atlantis was home for the final time.

Feeling those emotions, seeing her land, and then being towed back to the VAB for a final time.

It's something that has stuck with me ever since.

Standing just yards away from Atlantis and knowing that this real life spaceship had just spent more than a week in orbit and brought her final crew home safely to our backyard, filled m with an intense sense of pride.

I felt those same emotions on Friday, November 2nd, 2012, when Atlantis was wheeled inside her permanent home.