At 14:20 on the 14th Eastern Time (2:20 on the 15th Beijing Time), the Atlantis shuttle was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, starting its 12-day farewell journey. Before the end of the year, all three US shuttles currently in service, including the Atlantis, will be retired, marking the end of the US "shuttle era". But what is next? The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) originally planned to put into use the next generation Orion spacecraft in the Constellation program by 2015, however, after Barack Obama became president, he cancelled the Constellation program.