Rest In Peace Endeavour

 The headlines say, "Endeavour finally reaches permanent LA museum home". Its journey to the museum at the California Science Center has been described as “a logistical headache that delayed its arrival to its museum resting place by about 17 hours” . The key words are “resting place”. The journey was more like a funeral procession. The retirement of Endeavour is a step backwards in our exploration of space. Asking our astronauts to hitch a ride on a Russian space ship is embarrassing. Next thing you know they will be riding in the back seat of a Chinese space vehicle. Yes, we sent Curiosity to Mars but it’s not the same as an American space vehicle carrying American astronauts into outer space. Private corporations are supposed to pick up the slack. I’m sure that will happen only if the price is right ( will they outsource the work?). Until then we must rest on our laurels. We’ve been doing a lot of that lately. Rest in peace Endeavour.