Respect? It's just a vehicle, and a way too expensive one at that.
You make it sound as if it's going to die.
There will be newer and better and cheaper methods in the future. In the private sector an exciting race is going on too, and has been for a while, we'll see much better means to get the job done.
Respect for the brave folks that fly it, those that do difficult tasks on it and on the ISS and such, and to those that perished in the line of duty, doing what they loved to do, sure, plenty of it too. But the shuttle is a machine, not much more to me. And a money guzzling, outdated program too, and it's a good thing that it is taken out of the running if you ask me. Time for something else. That's the way of everything. Old things are left behind at some point.
And if you realise what it costs to run, and how many people in America live under the 'comfortable financial limit' and how much more there is wrong with things like healthcare, education and such, then I don't think I respect a machine very much. Sure it is important to do certain types of research in zero-G circumstances, but there will be better, cheaper ways to get to the lab, trust me.
And then they can spend a little of that which it used to cost, on other important things.
I wish the astronauts godspeed, and I hope everything goes smoothly. And then it's just the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.
