TY - BOOK AU - Dean,Margaret Lazarus AU - Polito,Robert TI - Leaving orbit: notes from the last days of American spaceflight SN - 9781555977092 AV - TL521.312 .D43 2015 U1 - 629.40973 23 PY - 2015///] CY - Minneapolis, Minnesota PB - Graywolf Press KW - Space Shuttle Program (U.S.) KW - United States KW - National Aeronautics and Space Administration KW - Space flight KW - Space shuttles KW - Accidents KW - Outer space KW - Exploration N1 - Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-309); Prologue: Air and space -- The beginnings of the future : this is Cape Canaveral -- What it felt like to walk on the Moon -- Good-bye, Discovery -- A brief history of the future -- Good-bye, Endeavour -- A brief history of spacefarers -- Good-bye, Atlantis -- The end of the future : wheel stop -- The future -- Epilogue -- Timeline of American spaceflight -- Judge's afterword / Robert Polito N2 - Leaving Orbit takes the measure of what American spaceflight has achieved while reckoning with its earlier witnesses, such as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Oriana Fallaci. Along the way, Dean meets NASA workers, astronauts, and space fans, gathering possible answers to the question: What does it mean that a spacefaring nation won't be going to space anymore? An elegy to the waning days of human spaceflight as we have known it ER -