kennedy space center. joining me to talk about all things atlantis, good morning to you, dave brodie. i'm glad to see you. i guess i wanted to figure out why this is ending. the shuttle program has run its course? has it become too expensive? both? >> exactly. both are true. the shuttle program did everything that it came to do, and magnificently, i will say. >> yeah. >> this thing cost a lot of money. yesterday's launch, $1,500,000,00. we were promised a vehicle that was going to launch 50 times a year for under $10 million a launch. the mission managers knew they were never going to get those kind of efficiencies out of the vehicles. they kept quiet about it, being good company guys and we the people never asked. shame on all of us. >> interesting. you talk about the expense. i know so many jobs were lost -- or will be lost officially very, very soon as they retire the program. >> i hope that some of those jobs will immediately transfer