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Does the Last Shuttle Flight Mark the End of an Age of Optimism?
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Does the Last Shuttle Flight Mark the End of an Age of Optimism?

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NASA's last shuttle is on its way to the International Space Station. We look back at 30 years of technological history and ask if a powerful American dream has also come to an end.  Also, the latest unemployment numbers provide grim job creation news, and Prime Minister David Cameron and the scandal over Rupert Murdoch's News of the World.

Banner image: Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off the launch pad for the final space shuttle mission. Photo by NASA TV

Making News

Latest Unemployment Numbers Provide Grim Job Creation News ()

American employment growth almost came to a halt in June, with just 18,000 new jobs created after economists forecast 105,000. Affirming that we'd created two million private-sector jobs over the past 16 months, President Obama responded to the anemic jobs report by cautioning that the recession had cost us more than eight million. Timothy Homan reports on the economy for Bloomberg News.

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Main Topic

Thirty Years of Technological History Come to an End ()

Just before 11:30 today East Coast Time, the voices of NASA were heard describing the launch of a Space Shuttle for the last time. As Atlantis took to the skies at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA marked the "sentimental journey into history." What did shuttle accomplished in 30 years? Was it a scientific success or a magnificent failure? We talk to one of the first women to work at NASA, who hoped to set foot on another planet. Is America's dream of space exploration out of date?  Is it time to transfer the energy, imagination and resources into the problems we face here on Earth?

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Reporter's Notebook

British Phone Hacking Scandal Leads to Arrests ()

David Cameron today addressed continuing revelations about the relationships between British police, politicians and the media, putting an end to the decades-old practice of Labour and Conservatives Parties "courting the support of the press." An hour after the Prime Minister spoke, one of his own former aides was arrested in connection with the scandal over News of the World, the paper Rupert Murdoch is closing down. Andy Coulson was editor of the paper during a disturbing episode of cell phone hacking. Watching all of this is Sarah Lyall, London correspondent for the New York Times.

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