I don’t have much more to say than I’ve already said many times — I think the space shuttles are magnificent machines that once represented all my dreams for the future, and I’m genuinely sad to see their era coming to an end. Especially as I have my days when I think this just may be the proverbial it for manned spaceflight by Americans. Oh, sure, we’ll keep hitching rides to the ISS on Russian ships for a few more years, and companies like SpaceX are promising some exciting things, but I can’t help feeling like the day of the Space Transportation System — that’d be the shuttle to you and me — isn’t the only one that’s passing. The Space Age that began in the 1950s and always seemed like such a given as I was growing up, such a well-loved and everlasting institution, seems to be winding down, too. There are partisan types who are quick to blame the situation on President Obama because he’s the one who axed the Constellation program that was supposed to replace the shuttle, but it wasn’t his fault. It’s been coming for years. Decades, maybe. We are diminishing, as a culture. We lost our nerve somewhere along the way, and our drive and our curiosity went with it. The human race will spread out into the system one of these days, but I no longer have faith that Americans will be leading the way.

But this also is something I’ve said before. For today, let’s just focus on Discovery and her incredible legacy. She is the most-traveled of the shuttle fleet, clocking up a whopping 365 days in space over 39 missions across a 27-year operational lifespan. She’s circled the Earth 5,830 times for a grand total of 148, 221, 675 miles traversed while in orbit. And as Commander Steve Lindsay noted in his remarks on the Kennedy Space Center runway this afternoon, with his ship standing proudly on the tarmac behind him, she came home today as perfect as on her very first flight.

Discovery‘s next journey will be a comparative hop of only 750 miles, from Kennedy to Washington, DC, where she will become a permanent resident of the Smithsonian alongside her sister ship, the prototype Enterprise. My understanding is that the two spaceplanes will be parked nose to nose, representing the beginning and the end of the program. One day, I intend to stand in front of that exhibit. And I’m willing to bet my eyes will fill with tears for what was, and what I always thought would be…