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In his final message on Twitter before setting out on the six-month mission, Garan said: "Thanks to everyone for all the words of encouragement. They really mean a great deal to me. Final preps are in work. We're ready!" Garan wrote earlier Tuesday on Twitter that he had picked U2's "One" and Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" as music to listen to during the flight. Garan's backup, Daniel Burbank, used Garan's Twitter account to post photos of the launch preparations. One of them showed the American astronaut following a Baikonur tradition and leaving his name on the door of his hotel room. Garan has promised to keep sending Twitter messages and blogging at Fragile Earth, a shared blog written by several astronauts. NASA is retiring its 30-year-old space shuttle program with Endeavour's flight April 19 and the final trip of Atlantis this summer. After that, Soyuz will be the only means to carry astronauts into space. Suffredini said he has "absolutely all the confidence in the world that Soyuz is doing the job" but would like the U.S. "at some point to evolve to have its own capability in human's lowest orbit," which, he said, American scientists are working on. A prospective successor to the space shuttle, Constellation, was canceled in October after President Barack Obama proposed eliminating public funds for the program and attracting corporate money to develop a replacement. ___ Online:
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