 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
Space Shuttle Atlantis lands for Last Time
Submitted by Julie Marcus on July 21, 2011 - 11:14am.
|
(Best Syndication News) - The STS-135 mission ended today when the Space Shuttle landed at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:57 a.m. EDT. This marks the end of the Space Shuttle program for NASA, which lasted 30 years.
The Atlantis landed safely with Commander Chris Ferguson and his crew. The STS-135 mission crew included Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim.
The STS-135 mission involved a major delivery of parts, supplies, and food to the International Space Station. This included 9400 pounds of spare parts, extra equipment and miscellaneous supplies, which were packaged inside the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module. There was 2,677 pounds of food that was delivered on this mission trip. There is now enough supplies and food to provide a year’s worth of living needs for the astronauts. The mission crew also removed 5,700 pounds of “unwanted” items that the brought back to Earth. Possibly, it was their “trash” but could have been other stuff.
To celebrate the last Space Shuttle mission, NASA will be holding a welcome home ceremony for the astronauts this Friday, July 22, in Houston, Texas. NASA is inviting the public to the event at 4 p.m. CDT at their NASA Hangar 990 located at Ellington Field, in Houston. The gates will open to the public at 3:30 p.m. If you cannot make it to the event, you can watch it live on the NASA Television channel.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis will be retired and put on display the NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex in Florida. Space Shuttle Endeavour will be on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Space Shuttle Discovery will be put on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
By: Julie Marcus
|
|
