spacetoday.net: Atlantis lands, ending shuttle era

Posted: Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 7:55 AM ET (1155 GMT)
STS-135: landing (NASA/KSC)

The space shuttle Atlantis landed in Florida Thursday morning, ending the final mission in the 30-year shuttle program. Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:57 am EDT (0957 GMT) Thursday in perfect weather conditions on its first landing opportunity, ending a nearly 13-day mission to the International Space Station. During its nearly nine days docked to the ISS, the four-person STS-135 crew transferred several tons of supplies to the station, permitting full operation of the station through 2012. The STS-135 crew also supported an EVA by two ISS crew members, who moved a faulty ammonia pump to the shuttle and installed a robotic servicing experiment brought to the station on the shuttle. The landing marks the end of the 135th and final shuttle mission, stretching back to STS-1 in April 1981. Atlantis will be later put on display at KSC.