Private companies have been tapped to take over cargo hauls and astronaut rides to the space station, which is expected to carry on for at least another decade. The first stop under Obama's plan is an asteroid by 2025 next comes Mars in the mid-2030s. NASA is sacrificing the shuttles, according to the program manager, so it can get out of low-Earth orbit and get to points beyond. Last-ditch appeals to keep shuttles flying by such NASA legends as Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Mission Control founder Christopher Kraft landed flat. Bush's lunar goals, however, opting instead for astronaut expeditions to an asteroid and Mars. President Barack Obama nixed President George W. The decision to cease shuttle flight was made seven years ago, barely a year after the Columbia tragedy. Yet each time, the shuttle program persevered and came back to fly again. Two of the shuttles - Challenger and Columbia - were destroyed, one at launch, the other during the ride home.
The five shuttles carried 355 people from 16 countries and, altogether, spent 1,333 days in space - almost four years.
It was the 135th mission for the space shuttle fleet, which altogether flew 542 million miles and circled Earth more than 21,150 times over the past three decades. The international partners - Russia, Europe, Japan - will carry the load in the meantime.
#SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS KENNEDY SPACE CENTER FULL#
A full year's worth of food and other supplies were dropped off at the space station, just in case the upcoming commercial deliveries get delayed. This grand finale came 50 years to the day that Gus Grissom became the second American in space, just a half-year ahead of Glenn.Ītlantis - the last of NASA's three surviving shuttles to retire - performed as admirably during descent as it did throughout the 13-day flight. The next-to-youngest in NASA's fleet will remain at Kennedy Space Center as a museum display. It was truly a homecoming for Atlantis, which first soared in 1985. He was 77 at the time he turned 90 this week.īorn with Columbia, it was NASA's longest-running space exploration program. The first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, became the oldest person ever in space, thanks to the shuttle. NASA's five space shuttles launched, saved and revitalized the Hubble Space Telescope built the space station, the world's largest orbiting structure and opened the final frontier to women, minorities, schoolteachers, even a prince. Hundreds of other Johnson Space Center employees stood outside, watching the landing on a jumbo screen. Mission Control in Houston also was packed, teeming with past and present flight directors. The astronauts' families and friends, as well as shuttle managers and NASA brass, gathered near the runway to welcome Atlantis home - and bid the shuttle program goodbye. Thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such a fitting end." "Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and our ship Atlantis.
"There's a lot of emotion today, but one thing's indisputable. "The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it's changed the way we view our universe," said Ferguson. Watch raw footage of the landing (story continues below) Thursday, though, belonged to Atlantis and its crew: Ferguson, co-pilot Douglas Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus, who completed a successful space station resupply mission.Ītlantis' main landing gears touched down at 5:57 a.m., with "wheels stop" less than a minute later. Asteroids and Mars are the destinations of choice, yet NASA has yet to settle on a rocket design to get astronauts there. The long-term future for American space exploration is just as hazy, a huge concern for many at NASA and all those losing their jobs because of the shuttle's end. soil, with private companies gearing up to seize the Earth-to-orbit-and-back baton from NASA. It will be another three to five years at best before Americans are launched again from U.S. The twilight landing, just before dawn, came 30 years and three months after the very first shuttle flight in 1981. Share your memories of the space shuttle program "Job well done, America," replied Mission Control. And it's come to a final stop," radioed commander Christopher Ferguson. "After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle's earned its place in history. (AP) - Atlantis and four astronauts returned from the International Space Station in triumph Thursday, bringing an end to NASA's 30-year shuttle journey with one last, rousing touchdown that drew cheers and tears.Ī record crowd of 2,000 gathered near the landing strip, thousands more packed the space center and countless others watched history unfold from afar as NASA's longest-running spaceflight program came to a close.
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