Alyssa Reflects on Shuttle's Legacy

Guest Blogger:  Miss Alyssa Y. Watson

 Alyssa is a rising 6thgrader from Wilton Elementary School in Creedmoor, NC.  Mr. James Stranix was her scienceteacher.  She will be attending G.C.Hawley Middle School in Creedmoor, NC.  in a few weeks.

During the summer, Alyssa’sparents ask her to read newspaper articles and write reports.  Alyssa provides her reflections below on the NewYork Times article TheShuttle Ends Its Final Voyage and an Era in Space.

We had agreat run with great memories and accomplishments, we achieved theunthinkable.  We built the 1st shuttle and we built the last, we have donewhat people thought would never happen.  Rest in Peace to the people whoaren’t alive to see it, God Bless the ones who were. 

For thosewho saw the last shuttle go into space saw our legacy, saw what we worked sohard to achieve.  They saw the shuttles that prevailed and the ones thatdidn’t have as much luck.  They witnessed Neil Armstrong land on the moonand when he stepped onto that huge rock that changes our planet so much he saidthe famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap formankind.” and he was right.  That gave us hope, which gave us dreams,which started our story of how we entered the wonderful world of Space! We will never forget those words and we will never forget the brave people whodied trying to get to the place we all want to go, space, the finalfrontier. 

Our legacyhas ended exactly where it started, at the Kennedy Space Center, in greatgratitude to John F. Kennedy for putting us in Space.  We now have evenmore experience than before; we can do more things now that we understand moreabout the wonderful galaxies yet to come.  But we will never fullyexperience the depth and the mystery many of the other universes have to offer