Space Shuttle Atlantis Lands for the Last Time
The space shuttle Atlantis has landed for the last time at the Kennedy Space Center after travelling countless space miles over 26 years.
The final flight for Atlantis brought to a close the 30 year space shuttle programme that has re-defined space travel and what could be achieved with a space craft. The space shuttles was used to build the international space and to maintain the hubble telescope amongst other projects.
The space shuttle Atlantis will spend it’s retirement at the Kennedy Space Center wowing people at the visitors center.
The shuttles are being retired mainly due to the cost involved in maintaining them and the end will mean that 3,000 people will lose their jobs this week.
They can be proud of what they achieved however and Charles Bolden, the Nasa Administrator said,
“I want everybody who was involved in this to feel incredibly proud of what you did and what your role was.”
Nasa will now be without it’s own transport into space and will have to rely on the Russians for a lift. They hope that the private sector will take up the slack and although there has been progress it is not thought that anything will be operational for 3 or 4 years.
The money saved from the programme is intended to be invested into new systems that will take humans further into space than they have ever been before, including Mars, the next great destination.
The other shuttles, Discovery and Endeavour will go to the California Science Center in LA and the Air and Space Museum in Virginia.
You can watch the landing coverage in it’s entirety from NASA below.
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