NASA's Manned Spaceflight Ends (For Now) with Safe Shuttle Landing

AP Images
Erik Hayden 1,379 Views Jul 21, 2011

It's been commemorated for quite some time, but at 5:57 am this morning NASA's current space shuttle era officially ended when the Atlantis safely touched down its gears at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a mission to restock the International Space Station went smoothly (the crew added enough supplies to last the station a year) the shuttle undocked from the ISS. With a "Farewell ISS, make us proud" statement from commander Chris Ferguson, it headed back toward Earth. At 10 a.m. EST the shuttle's crew will hold a news conference live on NASA's TV website. We've embedded the final minutes of the landing video below, along with the images of the shuttle rolling to a complete stop:

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ehayden at nationaljournal dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

Related Articles   More by Erik Hayden

Space Shuttle Program to Close Down Friday

The Atlantis Launches: A Blast Off Roundup

Atlantis Restocks Station, Avoids Space Debris

 

Remote, Polluted Lakes; Comet Crossbow

Jon Stewart Pleads with the GOP Not to Back Newt Gingrich

Elsewhere on the Web

User Comments

Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register

  • The Atlantic Wire on Twitter
  • The Atlantic Wire RSS Feed
  • The Atlantic Wire iPhone App