The space shuttle Atlantis glides to a landing at Kennedy Space Center to complete its final mission in May 2010.
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of NASA/Tony Gray and Tom Farrar.
Final Flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis
The space shuttle Atlantis finished its last flight when it landed in May 2010. NASA is retiring the whole fleet of space shuttles by the end of 2010. Discovery and Endeavor are the other two shuttles that haven't been retired yet.
Atlantis blasted off on its last mission on May 5, 2010. The shuttle carried a new Russian research module to the International Space Station (ISS). Astronauts went on three spacewalks during the shuttle's mission.
The first flight of Atlantis was in October 1985. This orbiter has flown 32 missions. Atlantis flew the final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2009. This shuttle also flew seven missions to the Russian Mir space station and many flights to the ISS. Atlantis also launched the Magellan and Galileo space probes in 1989.
Caption: same as int.
You might also be interested in:
There is a large space station circling Earth right now. It is called the International Space Station (ISS for short). Astronauts live and work in the ISS. Sixteen countries, including the United States,
...more
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is really neat! It was first launched in 1990, but scientists started building it in the 1970's! We have found all kinds of objects like stars, nebulae and galaxies. The
...more
The shuttle Atlantis returned home on Monday. It was a perfect landing. The main goal of this shuttle mission was to pick up Michael Foale at the space station Mir and return him home to Earth. Astronaut
...more
Galileo was a spacecraft that orbited Jupiter for eight years. It made many discoveries about Jupiter and its moons. Galileo was launched in 1989, and reached Jupiter in 1995. The spacecraft had two parts.
...more
Astronauts are exposed to many different types of dangerous radiation in space. Space agencies, like NASA, must carefully monitor the radiation exposure of astronauts to make sure they remain safe and
...more
The space shuttle Atlantis finished its last flight when it landed in May 2010. NASA is retiring the whole fleet of space shuttles by the end of 2010. Discovery and Endeavor are the other two shuttles
...more
Apollo 11 was the first mission that landed a person on the moon. On July 16, 1969, the U. S. rocket Saturn 5 was launched carrying the lunar landing module Eagle. The Eagle was released and it reached
...more
