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The end of an era is approaching as NASA plans its five final shuttle launch missions before shutting down the program this year. The three aging space shuttles will each be transferred to museums or science centers.

I remember driving to the east coast of Florida to watch my first launch years ago. It was amazing the power one felt as it shook itself free from the earth's surface-its heavy weight tugging against gravity. Even standing several miles away, the launch is easily seen, the entire sky lit by the rocket engines as they create a huge blazing cone.

The next shuttle launch is at 4:39 a.m. on Feb. 7. This will be the last pre-dawn launch of the remaining scheduled missions. The night makes the lift-off and shuttle rockets even more spectacular to watch.

The space shuttle, or officially "NASA's Space Transportation System", was the first-ever reusable spacecraft. It consists of a payload bay-equipped orbiter to carry crew and cargo, with separate reusable solid rocket boosters to help it lift to space, and a disposable orange external tank to hold the chilled liquid fuel for its main engines.

The shuttle program has had a series of extreme highs and terrible lows during its decade-long history since the first launch of Columbia on April 12, 1981.Tragically, two shuttles and fourteen astronauts have been lost during accidents. After each, NASA was able to regroup, solve the problems and continue on.

This truly has been a remarkable journey for the NASA space program. As funding options continue to be discussed in Washington, the future of NASA and the space program is still up in the air. But there are already tentative plans to share and utilize rockets from other countries for future missions.

You still have time to watch a launch in person. If the current schedule stays on track, 2010 will see the launches of five remaining shuttle flights.

Photos courtesy of NASA.