Space shuttle Atlantis has landed for the 33rd and final time at 5:57 a.m. EDT on July 21 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, marking the retirement of NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program.
Administrator Charles Bolden was amongst the senior NASA staff on the runway to welcome home the four crew members.
“They have come to be known as the ‘final four.’ They did an absolutely incredible job,” Bolden said in a press release. “They made us very proud.”
Commander Chris Ferguson spoke on behalf of his crew.
“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,” he said, according to a NASA news release.
NASA’s space shuttle program, officially known as the Space Transportation System (STS), began with the launch of STS-1 on April 12, 1981.
Over 30 years, the 135 STS missions have implemented more than 2,000 experiments on astronomy, Earth, biological and materials sciences, as well as delivered the Hubble Telescope into orbit and helped to build the International Space Station (ISS).
The five shuttles of the STS—Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour—have collectively traveled more than 542 million miles and carried 355 people from 16 countries.
In its lifetime, Atlantis spent a total of 307 days in space, completed 4,848 orbits around Earth, and traveled 125,935,769 miles.
Atlantis successfully delivered more than 9,400 pounds of equipment and other supplies including 2,677 pounds of food to the ISS, which is expected to supply the station for the next year.
A welcome home ceremony will be held for the astronauts on July 22 in Houston, and will be broadcast live on NASA TV. The event is open to the public, to be held at 4 p.m. CDT at NASA’s Hangar 990 at Ellington Field. Gates to Ellington Field will open at 3:30pm.
