The next space shuttle mission will be on-board Space Shuttle Discovery, the most used space shuttle in the NASA program. It will also be Discovery's last flight.

When Discovery lands 11 days after launch, Commander Steve Lindsey will use knowledge he gained and training he went through in the Borderland to safely guide the space shuttle home.

That training takes place on the Shuttle Training Aircraft. It looks like a typical business jet, but it is far from typical.

"It's designed to emulate the same handling qualities, so it feels the same as a space shuttle, operates the same, same kind of control inputs and responses that you would expect," said Lindsey.

In October, KFOX weekend anchor Daniel Novick became one of the first civilians to ever board the STA for a training mission.

So how does something that looks like a business jet emulate the space shuttle?

"Dropping just the main gear, putting the engines in thrust reverse, and then engaging a simulation," Lindsey told KFOX.

Suddenly the plane acts and feels like the space shuttle on final approach for a landing.

"I'd have to say the shuttle is the hardest one to land," said Lindsey.

Lindsey, who will land Space Shuttle Discovery during this upcoming mission, says he's flown at least 50 different aircraft and he has never dealt with a monster quite like the space shuttle.

The space shuttle has no engine power on landing, it's one big, glider and it falls like a rock. Because there is no engine power, there is no second chance for landing.

"We have one shot at landing, we have to do it right the first time, every time," Lindsey told KFOX.

On the day KFOX went on the STA, Lindsey got five practice runs over White Sands Missile Range, but he's been through the landing process thousands of times before.

The STA starts at about 28,000 feet, when it deploys the landing gear and throws the engines into reverse. Within about a minute, the STA dives to just feet over the White Sands Space Harbor, perfectly emulating Space Shuttle Discovery.

"The first time I landed the space shuttle, when I took the controls for the first time, having never flown it before, I started flying and about 20 seconds later I said, 'This flies just like the STA,'" Lindsey told KFOX.

Lindsey's mission is the last time Discovery will fly into space, the second to last space shuttle mission. After that, no one really knows where the manned space program will go or what the future looks like for NASA in El Paso.

"I know that the bosses back in Houston and up in Washington, D.C., certainly are looking at what they want us to do at this facility," said Steve Malarchick, the NASA El Paso Site Manager.

Some of Malarchick's employees in El Paso have worked for NASA since the mid-'80s servicing and running the STA. While the STA might not fly again, Malarchick believed El Paso will still have a connection to NASA.

"There will be some presence. [NASA Flight Crew Operations Director] Brent Jett has told me on several occasions that the requirements of this facility go well beyond the shuttle program," Malarchick told KFOX.

But sometime next year, just before the final mission and the final space shuttle landing, the final training run with the STA will come to an end. The final time astronauts like Lindsey will visit the Sun City.

"I love coming here, I love doing the training, but mostly, I love the Mexican food," said Lindsey.

"It's been great to be a part of this segment of history, and we're going to miss it," said Malarchick.

While the astronauts may soon not be coming to El Paso anymore, their spirit will live on. There is a lunch bench in the NASA hangar at the El Paso International Airport that every astronaut who has ever trained there has signed.