With NASA set to launch the shuttle Endeavour for its final voyage later Friday, and Atlantis set to close out the 30-year-old shuttle program when it returns from a mission set for launch in June, it's unquestionably the end of an era for Florida's Space Coast.

With an expected half a million people to be in attendance (including the First Family), everything is still a "go" for the launch at 3:47 p.m. (Meteorologists say there's a 70 percent chance of the shuttle going off without a weather issue, but one never knows here in Florida – although it apparently raining a little after 9:00 a.m. Friday).

Although there is much sadness in the communities where space exploration has become a way life for the area – and especially business – in Titusville, Merritt Island, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne and other communities on Florida's central Atlantic coast, there are plenty of logical reasons why the shuttle is being retired.

This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2011.