Although the human side of space travel is coming to a close, a door is now open for new types of exploration.

Aerospace engineering students at Georgia Tech hosted a conference this week in honor of the current space program. Many NASA astronauts and administrators were in attendance.

Ryan Russell of the Aerospace Engineering program acknowledges the advances made by the space shuttle, but says that it was not meant to last as long as it did.

“We are phasing out the space shuttle and it should be noted that it had an extraordinary career and we learned a tremendous amount from the engineering of the vehicle, and so we are more or less just transitioning to a new phase.”

Russell hopes that these new opportunities will include more aerospace robotics.

The last space shuttle launch will take place in early July of this year.