The space shuttle Atlantis glides to a landing at Kennedy Space Center to complete its final mission in May 2010.
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Image courtesy of NASA/Tony Gray and Tom Farrar.
Final Flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis
The space shuttle Atlantis completed its final scheduled flight when it touched down on at Kennedy Space Center on the morning of May 26, 2010. NASA is planning to retire the entire fleet of space shuttle orbiters by the end of 2010. Discovery and Endeavor are the other two remaining operational space shuttles.
Atlantis blasted off on its final mission on May 5, 2010. The shuttle delivered a new Russian-built research module named "Rassvet" to the International Space Station (ISS). Astronauts conducted three spacewalks during the shuttle's mission.
Atlantis first flew into space in October 1985. This orbiter has completed 32 missions, including the final flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2009, seven missions to the Russian Mir space station, numerous flights to the ISS, and the launches of the Magellan and Galileo space probes in 1989.
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