Wednesday, May 26, 2010

After completing mission STS-132, space shuttle ATLANTIS lands at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 26, 2010.
NASA / Carl Winebarger

A CURTAIN CALL FOR ATLANTIS... At 5:48 AM, Pacific Daylight Time today, space shuttle Atlantis safely touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The successful conclusion of her flight, STS-132, means that there are only two more missions (STS-133 and STS-134) that officially remain in the shuttle program before it comes to an end...and those pair will be flown by Atlantis’ sister ships Discovery and Endeavour, respectively. If Congress and NASA do not approve an additional flight (STS-135...which would be flown by Atlantis) that's been rumored online for a while, then today will officially be the day that the second youngest orbiter in the shuttle fleet made her swan song. Below are three cool images showing Atlantis docked to and orbiting near the International Space Station...for her 11th and final (scheduled) time.

Space shuttle ATLANTIS is docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 17, 2010.
NASA

Space shuttle ATLANTIS is docked to the ISS on May 17, 2010.
NASA

With the Russian-built RASSVET Mini-Research Module in the foreground, space shuttle ATLANTIS floats near the ISS before finally departing the outpost on May 23, 2010.
NASA
Posted by Richard Par at 6:53 PM
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