Richard Garriott has written another article for the Huffington Post, in which he lauds the recently-decommissioned Space Shuttles and reflects on that chapter of humanity’s exploration of space.

As we close out the Space Shuttle era, we should reflect both on the amazing accomplishments of what they have achieved as well as the harsh lessons of the two tragic accidents. Most importantly, it is a time to reflect about the future, and why America should and is leading the world in human space exploration today and in the future!

The Space Shuttle has been the most successful space launch system ever by far. In 30 years we launched the Space Shuttle 135 times. Today more than half of the just over 500 people who have ever orbited the earth, have done so aboard one of the five space shuttles. The fleet has launched satellites, interplanetary probes, orbital laboratories and space telescopes, and most all of the non-Russian parts of the International Space Station were lifted to orbit aboard shuttles.

These amazing successes have been marred by two tragic failures: the sad losses of Challenger and of Columbia and their crews. These brought the survivability expectations both actual and projected to about a one in seventy chance of death, which is far higher than we should ask of our NASA explorers, and far higher than is acceptable for future commercial and private access to space.

It’s a touching and fitting tribute to NASA’s signature spacecraft, now being sent one-by-one to museums around the United States.