STS-135 (Atlantis)
STS-135 (Atlantis)
Launch Date
July 8, 2011
Craft
Space Shuttle
Status
Past
Crew
4
STS-135 (Atlantis)
STS-135 (Atlantis)
Launch Date
July 8, 2011
Craft
Space Shuttle
Status
Past
Crew
4
Overview
"Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, its place in history secured, the Shuttle pulls into port for the last time. Its voyage, at an end." - Rob Navias, NASA commentator. After a storied 30 year career, Atlantis brought the Space Shuttle Program to a successful close with her 33rd and final mission. The four-person crew delivered thousands of kilograms of supplies to the International Space Station. Before leaving, the Atlantis crew left a small American flag behind for the first crew of a then yet-to-be determined commercial crew vehicle to retrieve and bring home. With Atlantis' landing, the U.S. voluntarily gave up the ability to launch humans to space, triggering the longest stand-down in U.S. human launch operations lasting 8 years and 10 months. NASA, ESA, Japan, and Canada were subsequently forced to rely on a single Russian rocket and spacecraft to ferry all crew to and from the ISS until 2020. Atlantis landed for the final time on July 21st, 2011. Over a 26-year career, Atlantis spent 306 days in space, traveled 202,673,974 km, and carried 207 crewmembers. Twenty-two of her 33 missions were international in nature, making Atlantis the most international launch and landing spacecraft in history.
Crafts
Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.