Happy Independence Day to all our American friends!

[Admin]

Dear Friends,

In five days, the last Space Shuttle will leave Earth for the last time, and soon after its last mission is wrapped up, a wave of layoffs and re-assignments will start happening at NASA, drainng it from tens of thousands of man-years of experience, loyalty and dedication.

Many will find a new job with companies hungry for their knowledge and skills. Some will happily retire and look back with pride at the last employment years with the pride reserved for those who touched and made history. Yet some will be less fortunate and will not recover - they will not find a place in the Space industry.

While celebrating this Independence Day, let us all send our support and appreciation to those families who will be affected by the conclusion of the STS program. Let us wish them a fast recovery from this hopefully temporary situation.

Let us also wish for the smallest "gap" possible, and for a swift resurrection of manned Space Exploration to the "Moon, Mars and beyond".

/Admin

[wrxracer1983]

Well said Admin!  I was lucky enough to get tickets for the final launch, I can't wait.  To view history like this with my own eyes will be amazing.

[Admin]

Well said Admin!  I was lucky enough to get tickets for the final launch, I can't wait.  To view history like this with my own eyes will be amazing.

Plenty of envy at this end on that historic ticket. I hope you're aware it was a 1:10,000,000 chance, right?

Since you shamelessly teased and frustrated everybody here with your incredible luck, you're hereby tasked with uploading as many pictures as you can on the relevant thread, and yes, with as many on-location tweets as possible (mentioning SSMS too, of course

Wishing you a no-scrubs and no-"surprises" event, you lucky devil!

/Admin

[Spaceguy5]

I second that. I considered shamefully buying some on ebay, but the only ones not ridiculously overpriced didn't include parking passes.

[wrxracer1983]

I'll definitely have a bunch of pics, plus I will take a video to upload to youtube or something.  Too bad I won't be staying in FL long enough to see them land.  I think I got lucky because I registered to be able to buy tickets as soon as it opened.  I did the same thing when we were able to actually buy them, but the causeway tickets were sold out by the time the random selection thing let me in.  So, have to settle for visitor center.  Just happy to be able to go.

[vinny002]

Hi, guys!!

I hope you guys have a happy independence day!!

                          Cheers,
                     Vincent

[Spaceguy5]

Ha, I jumped at registering literally the second they opened. I really don't like how they turned it into a lottery system. When that failed, I tried getting tickets through some of the tour websites (even if they are overpriced. They're at least cheap compared to ebay <_____<) but both sites crashed for over 24 hours the instant they started sales because there was too much traffic for their servers to handle. At least I can go out knowing I saw STS-133 in person--even if the sound was dampened by a hill, and it disappeared into the clouds after 5 seconds.

[wrxracer1983]

Agreed on the lottery thing, but I suppose from their standpoint it was needed.  The thing I didn't like was having the random selection when actually buying the tickets.  As soon as the site opened I tried to get in, just to be placed in a 'random selection waiting room'.  Even though I was quick I still sat on that screen (which refreshed every 30 sec) for about 15 minutes, which is probably why the causeway was sold out.  I was probably lucky just to get the VC.  But this will be my only launch in person, just sad to see it go.  I was really hoping they would extend the program until we had a viable replacement, instead of having to rely on our friends on the other side of the world.