[onewhippedpuppy]

Awesome stuff. As an aerospace engineer, I've always had a thing for space. Sadly never had the opportunity to work in the field, because I can't imagine anything more incredible than watching your hard work travel thousands of miles into space to accomplish some incredible goal. We planned a summer family vacation to Orlando around seeing the final shuttle launch, which was unfortunately rescheduled. For anyone interested in space, the Kennedy Space Center is a great visit. We also have an amazing space museum called the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS. Sounds crazy but it's a top notch Smithsonian affiliated museum.

There are several space shuttle-esque platforms in some form of service. The Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser is still being developed for NASA cargo transport, but it was designed for crewed missions as well. The Boeing X-37B is a DARPA classified program that has made several trips to space doing spooky stuff, again as a cargo transport.