End of an era....................

So....... the Atlantis landed safely. Pink slips and handshakes are handed out all around. For our next trips to the space station, our astronauts (passengers?) will line up to be groped by Russian TSA agents before being allowed to get their boarding pass on to a Russian space shuttle at the departure gate. They say that he who laughs last, last best. I wonder if anybody can hear the ghost of Nikita Khruschev (1st Secy of Soviet Union in 1957 when SPUTNIK was launched) giggling, stage left..... On the other hand it is true that NASA now has time to proceed with their new number one priority mission as directed by the sitting POTUS; travel the world and stroke the egos of Muslims everywhere and tell them how much they have contributed to the world............ Go figure.............................????