NASA / Kevin O'Connell
It was a decade ago this morning that the orbiter Endeavour safely touched down on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. After completing a 15-plus day mission that involved delivering the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station, Endeavour began a year's-long decommissioning process before she made her way to her final retirement home in Los Angeles. Most of her propulsion tanks, which carried toxic hypergolic fuel during STS-134, were removed to ensure that the orbiter would be safe for permanent display at the California Science Center the following year. Also, additional components in Endeavour's propulsion system were taken out so that they could eventually be utilized on the space shuttle's successor, the Space Launch System rocket.
With two missions down, only one flight remained before the space shuttle program officially came to an end in 2011. More on STS-135 next month.
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