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It's the end of an era.
With the Space Shuttle Endeavor lumbering through the streets of Los Angeles to its new home as a museum piece at the California Science Center, it's finally sinking in. The U.S. space shuttle program, which began in 1981, has ended.
It brings a bit of melancholy to know that the last of the shuttles has been retired and will never again be seen in the night sky as a brighter-than-normal star.
There are millions who don't remember a time before the four shuttles - Endeavor, Atlantis, Challenger and Columbia - ran their routes to and from the International Space Station.
There are fewer still who remember a time before human beings ventured beyond Earth's atmosphere into space.
It should be noted that America's space program is not ending, but changing its focus.
There are plans, approved by the government, for commercial companies to develop vehicles to carry people into space.
Until that becomes a reality, U.S. astronauts will continue to hitch rides on the Russian spacecraft, Soyuz.
That, in itself, brings a surreal moment for those who remember the Cold War of the mid- to late-20th century, when the Soviet Union was the enemy of the United States.
Russia was feared and hated and our only rival in the space race.
No one could ever have predicted back in the early days of the space program that just a few decades later, the United States and Russia would conduct joint missions. And it was certainly beyond the realm of possibility that American astronauts would one day be hitch-hikers on a Russian spacecraft.
But here it is.
The space program, since its beginning in the 1960s - and especially since the launching of the International Space Station - has produced literally thousands of inventions and innovations.
There are the big, obvious ones, like the Hubbel telescope. But there are countless others that we use every day without thinking about it - if we ever did.
The program has launched satellites that pinpoint the position of hurricanes and beam "Dancing With the Stars" into our homes.
Among the more than 6,300 patents NASA has filed are carbon monoxide detectors and LED lights.
Experiments conducted on the space station have led to advances in everything from technology to biochemistry to medicine.
The shuttle program has also had its moments of tragedy. Fully half of the shuttle fleet was destroyed in violent explosions.
The Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, 73 seconds into its flight, killing everyone on board.
It is one of those moments burned into the national psyche. Everyone who was old enough remembers where they were when they heard the news and saw the images.
The same goes for the Columbia disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, when the second U.S. shuttle blew apart, this time over Texas.
But these tragedies did not ground the remaining shuttles, which continued their mission until 2011.
But now, once again, the U.S. space program is changing as the government steps aside to let private sector entrepreneurs pick up the challenge - at least in part - of the final frontier.
As one era ends, another begins.