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Kennedy Space Center Bob Cabana: Now it's my pleasure to introduce our administrator,

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Charlie Bolden. Charlie, come on up here.

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden: I was telling Chris Ferguson when he sat down,

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I said, it's not fair and I was asking him if it was because he's from Philadelphia or what.

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You know, I've been with Chris and the crew, boy, throughout the final flight and the landing and

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everything else and I'm always impressed by the four of them and the way that they have carried this,

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uh, it's not a burden but it's an awesome responsibility to be the representatives of the space program as

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the final crew to fly a vehicle in a program and they have done it incredibly well and

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Chris is always so eloquent when he talks. Bob is so eloquent when he talks

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and then I come up here with notes.

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But I have to because I'm not quite as suave and debonair as are they. I do want to thank the Merritt

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Island High School Color Guard and the band and the others over there and Sierra,

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you were awesome. Let me tell you, the national anthem is hard.

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Most professionals who try it mess it up. You were beautiful today and I thank you for honoring us by

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singing that.

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Bob, thank you very much for the introduction and thanks for letting me be a part of this program,

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it's just wonderful to be back here at KSC and to be with the KSC workforce.

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And as I look out and as I had an opportunity to talk to a lot of you this morning,

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because we were out here at like 6 o'clock because they were doing a brief and rolling out at 6:30,

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it's really special to be here with you and my old friend Atlantis. I know there's Dave Leestma,

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I was trying to, my eyes aren't as good as they used to be even with glasses,

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I know Dave Leestma's over there and I'm not calling names, but I was looking for my crew members who

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were with me on Atlantis and there's somebody back there and all that, it's great to be here.

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Dave and I were, we were among the crew and the backups who had the luxury of celebrating the

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anniversary of the, the 20th anniversary of STS-45 which was my single flight on Atlantis and we were in

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Brussels, Belgium and Atlantis was the focus of space week in Belgium.

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I tell you that only because I want you to recognize the significance that the shuttle program has had and

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will continue to have and that was not about history, that program was about the future in Belgium,

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in another country where they see what we started with shuttle and they're just hopeful that we won't give

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up and that we'll continue.

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Bo, I want to thank you for being here, Chris, I've already said how much I appreciate your being here.

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I want to let everybody know something. You know, today is a historic day.

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It's an incredibly historic day. But I don't preside over an agency that's in the history business,

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that's not what NASA does. We're not a history organization.

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We're in the business of creating the future and we're in the business of taking science fiction and turning

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it into science fact. And I think most of you here realize that. That's what we do.

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We take things that people say are impossible and we make them possible.

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We dazzle people at the way we do it. It's always fun to come down here because this is one place in the

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world where you guys and girls take something, people say it cannot be done, and you just go do it.

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And the problem with you, is you make it look too easy. You know, you just make it look too easy.

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What we do is not easy, what we do is incredibly difficult and you should be very proud about what we

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have done in the 30 years of the shuttle program. It's also difficult to make a transition.

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Really difficult to make a transition. You know, Bo was there, I was there, there's some of us who were

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there between Apollo and shuttle or if you want to really get to it, between Apollo-Soyuz and shuttle

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or between Skylab and shuttle There was a break, and it was a painful break,

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particularly for people who had been a part of the Apollo program.

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There's some people who still don't want to let it go. But you know, it happens, that's life.

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You just have to sometimes say we did great things and now we're on to greater things.

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This magnificent ship behind me is tangible representation of a great nation,

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of our hopes and dreams. We couldn't be where we are, poised for tomorrow's progress,

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without the space shuttle. And there are more exciting things happening right now here at KSC

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as well as around the agency. A little after a year after the shuttle retired, just this week,

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we completed the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.

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Little company called SpaceX launched Dragon from right over there at Cape Canaveral.

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It's the first of many such launches and we're well on track to once again launch

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American astronauts from U.S. soil in the next few years, right here from the Kennedy Space Center.

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I see Mark Cerangelo there, Chris Ferguson now represents Boeing.

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You know, these are companies that believe in the future and they believe they can make that happen

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and I think all we can do is trust them the way that we have trusted American industry from the beginning

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of time. They'll get it done, I'm excited about it.

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The passion and the dedication of the KSC workforce, all of you out here,

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you allowed us to proudly operate shuttle for an absolutely incredible three decades.

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That same pride and dedication in today's KSC workforce will send us to new destinations like an

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asteroid, Mars, once again launching from right here at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral.

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With your exceptional support, we'll restore those awe-inspiring moments of human spaceflight

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for the next generation of explorers. Those students, probably right over there in that band,

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or maybe even Sierra, those students who are studying right now to lead us in exploration,

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in the most incredible exploration era ever. It's now NASA's honor to permanently house this magnificent

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spacecraft right here, where she rose to the skies 33 times carrying 156 men and women.

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She's truly a testament to American ingenuity, to the dedication and passion of this workforce and of our

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nation to reach higher than ever and do what has not been done before.

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The space shuttle program has been a proud achievement for our nation.

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With 30 years of launching missions like Magellan and Galileo from Atlantis,

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expanding our international partnerships with visits to Mir and flying crewmembers from around the world,

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building the International Space Station and demonstrating that America, indeed,

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the world had a new home and has a new home in low Earth orbit.

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Those of us who flew Atlantis will never forget the experience as Chris talked about.

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For those who made that possible here at Kennedy, by processing this amazing vehicle time and time

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again to those who watched in awe as she launched and maneuvered in space, and did incredible things,

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those memories, that inspiration, that passion is still yours.

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America still leads the world in exploration and we're building on the many fine accomplishments of the

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space shuttle program to take us where we've not gone before.

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To places where our imagination and our aspiration tells us we can go if we channel the passions that

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built and launched Atlantis and create a new day. Atlantis' final mission may have closed out the space

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shuttle program, but the spirit created that program and built her is very much alive as we develop the

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technologies and systems not only for private companies to serve our needs in low Earth orbit,

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but to keep us on a road to an asteroid, to Mars and places beyond.

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I want to thank all the crews here today who flew Atlantis in space.

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I want to thank the workforce that successfully sent her into orbit again and again.

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And I also want to thank the American public at large for making this incredible dream and achievement

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possible that we all share today.

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Our best days are ahead of us, with the shuttle as our tailwind. Godspeed Atlantis,

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on your next mission of inspiration and motivation.

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And now I'd like to ask Bob Cabana, Bo, Chris, Bill and Cheryl to join us up here on stage while we do