July 22, 2011 - Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely and is back on Earth after its successful and final mission of the 30-year long space program.
On the STS-135 13-day mission, the four Atlantis astronauts delivered over 9,400 pounds of spare parts, equipment and other supplies to the International Space Station.
All the materials were brought up in the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module, which was also used to bring some 5,700 pounds of unneeded items back to Earth from the station.
All the supplies should sustain the operations of the space station for the next year, since no more shuttles will be flying up on a regular basis.
While NASA administrators and the current White House administration assure there will eventually be other methods of flying up to the station, many remain skeptical at the ability for the U.S. to send astronauts to the station domestically.
Plans remain in effect for new vehicles to take astronauts beyond Earth's orbit, but no set time frame as to when they will be built and ready has been given. Meanwhile, American astronauts will soon be hitching rides to the station with the Russian Soyuz rockets.
Private companies are also bidding to get into the low-orbit ship-building business to take the astronauts up, but no vehicle has even made it to the production line yet.
Atlantis launches off with final space shuttle mission
Upon Atlantis final landing, Associate Administrator for Space Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier addressed the media with the following statement:
"I really want to thank the space shuttle team and the Space Shuttle Program for just a tremendous effort today and throughout the entire history of the program. We gave them a tremendous challenge to fly and execute these missions and to finish strong and I can tell you today that the team accomplished every one of those objectives. I'd also like to thank the nation for allowing us to have these thirty years to go use the shuttle system."
Meanwhile, Commander Chris Ferguson said on behalf of his crew that, "Although we got to take the ride, we sure hope that everybody who has ever worked on, or touched, or looked at, or envied or admired a space shuttle was able to take just a little part of the journey with us."
Upon the retirement of the shuttle, about 1,500 employees will get laid off, reports UPI.com, and will join thousands more who are being dismissed in the space industry.
Comments