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    July 21, 2011

Space Shuttle Atlantis Makes Final Landing

   VOA News
   Image provided by NASA-TV space shuttle Atlantis touches down on runway
   15 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., after
   completing the final space shuttle flight of the thirty-year program
   Thursday morning, July 21, 2011
   Photo: AP/NASA
   Image provided by NASA-TV space shuttle Atlantis touches down on runway
   15 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., after
   completing the final space shuttle flight of the thirty-year program
   Thursday morning, July 21, 2011

   The space shuttle Atlantis has made a perfect landing, bringing an
   official end to 30 years of U.S. space shuttle missions.
   The crew of four astronauts on board Atlantis touched down just before
   10:00 UTC at the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida.
   Perfect weather conditions and a crowd of hundreds welcomed the shuttle
   home.
   Atlantis' 13-day mission capped off its 33rd and final flight after 26
   years in service. The fourth shuttle in NASA's fleet, Atlantis first
   flew into space in October 1985.
   The crew departed from the International Space Station on Tuesday after
   an eight-day visit to deliver a year's worth of supplies, and haul
   trash and used equipment back to Earth.
   Atlantis, as well as the other remaining shuttles, will be retired from
   service and put on public display.
   Although NASA has long-range plans to use heavy lift rockets to send
   astronauts to an asteroid and eventually to Mars, the U.S. space agency
   will have no means of putting people into space for the next several
   years.
   Vehicles that can be used to ferry astronauts to low-earth orbit and
   the International Space Station are being developed by private
   companies. But until one of them is ready, NASA will send astronauts up
   on Russian rockets.

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