Florida's Space Coast was a popular destination for sightseers and dreamers who came to see humanity reach for the stars. It drew its identity from Kennedy Space Center, and the end of the shuttle program left it struggling to redefine itself. Rob Stephenson chronicles a community grappling with its past in the series Myths of the Near Future.

Kennedy Space Center was for two generations the public face of a space program that ended when the shuttle Atlantis touched down for the last time on July 21, 2011. Thousands of NASA employees lost their jobs, Kennedy was essentially mothballed and Space Coast became a shadow of itself.

Yet everywhere you look, there are reminders of its once glorious past. A life-size replica of a shuttle cockpit moulders on Merritt Island. The faded silhouette of a space shuttle remains on the marquee of a bowling alley. A space shuttle-themed room in a hotel goes largely unused. Stephenson's spent two years wandering Space Coast, finding these reminders of its once rich history.

"I'm looking at that moment of transition where something that was so emblematic of the dreams of the future has been relegated to a relic of the past," Stephenson says.

The photos capture a place that's had a hard time adapting. Things are a bit better economically, but Space Coast is still trying to figure out what comes next. Aviation and security companies such as Embraer and Northtrop Grumman have moved in, but it's not quite the same.

“It’s clear that the shuttle program was part of the community’s identity and psyche as well as the economy and almost overnight that all went away,” Stephenson says.

There’s still hope. Last year Kennedy Space Center released a 20-year master plan that includes new launch pads and a new runway. Coincidentally, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket launch will take place today from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying a Global Positional Satellite, or GPS IIF-9, that will be used for national security purposes.

Stephenson plans to keep documenting the region's redevelopment and has now begun including satellites in the project. The series, like the Space Coast he wanders, is a work in progress.

Photos from Myths of the Near Future are showing at the Format International Photography Festival through April 12.