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Kids And Adults Get Emotional Watching Final Shuttle Launch

BOSTON (CBS/AP) - Hundreds of people gathered at the Museum of Science in Boston Friday to watch history unfold.

Adults and children alike were emotional watching the last launch of the entire shuttle program.  They cheered as Atlantis disappeared into space.

The future of American space exploration was on everybody's mind.

WBZ-TV's Alana Gomez reports

"I feel very strongly that we should continue the space mission," one man told WBZ-TV.

"I'm hoping that it will be continued and we will do bigger and better things in the future."

Mal Cameron, an educator at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, New Hampshire, said this isn't the end to space travel.

"Unfortunately, as anything else it's funding that plays a big role, but there's always something new on the horizon," he told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz reports

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Private rocket companies will eventually take over the job of hauling supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station. The first supply run is targeted for the end of this year.

Until those flights are up and running, American astronauts will be transported to the space station via Russian Soyuz capsules, at a price of $50 million per trip.

(TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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