They called us the "hippies who went to Washington to save the space program". BJ Long and Al Ogram had come to our studio and seen the rock 'n roll work for RSO Records and Diana Ross. We'll never know for sure, but it might have been our work on StarTrek: The Motion Picture that gave them an idea of the things we could do with the Shuttle.

Whatever the reason, Al and BJ were convinced that our style and energy was just the thing to get the movers and shakers in Washington DC excited about the potential of their new space vehicle. Who were we to argue - especially in our first year of business?

This was our introduction to the aerospace business and we took to it like ducks to water. We all had thrilled to the Apollo missions, we were crazy about high technology and we were proud to be involved in something that was cooler than rock 'n roll.

Because Space Systems (North American) had built the Apollo Command Module we were commissioned to create a special presentation for the Tenth Anniversary of the moon landing. We called it Earthrise: Man's Journey Into Space and when we screened it at the banquet for the astronauts and their wives we thought our chests were going to burst.

It is amazing to think that on July 20th, 2009 we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that nail biting decent and then that calm, cool right stuff transmission: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

In April, 1981 STS-1 Columbia lit up the dawn sky, and with the engines and solid rocket boosters rumbling broke free of gravity as Mission Control announced that Columbia has cleared the tower. To celebrate her success, Rockwell commissioned us to produce a film we called Quest which NASA featured at the Paris Air Show.

After that Al and BJ commissioned us to create a widescreen presentation called The Next Giant Leap that remained on permanent exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center for many years. We made extra copies which Rockwell loaned to museums doing space related exhibits.

Somehow, twenty-eight years have flown by. On May 12, 2009 STS-125, the Atlantis, will fly the final Shuttle Mission. The mission profile calls for them to spend eleven days in orbit servicing the utterly remarkable Hubble Space Telescope. The repairs are expected to keep the Telescope operational until 2014.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed the nation to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth by the end of the decade. The resulting innovation has changed our world... arguably more then any other event in the history of man. Perhaps it is generational but I find it truly unfortunate that when Atlantis returns to terra firma, we will no longer have the ability to send men into space.