Atlantis Returns To Earth, NASA bids farewell to shuttle era

"Mission complete, Houston," Ferguson radioed. "After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history. It's come to a final stop."

The four STS-135 astronauts and their family members who came to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for yesterday's landing and completion of the Space Shuttle Program's final mission returned home to Houston this afternoon. The public is invited to attend a welcome home ceremony at 4 p.m. CDT in NASA's Hangar 990 at Ellington Field. Gates to Ellington Field will open at 3:30 p.m. The ceremony will be broadcast live on NASA TV and online at www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Space shuttle Atlantis was towed into Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility-2 following yesterday's employee appreciation event. Technicians will spend the next few weeks reconfiguring Atlantis after its final flight. Today, they will finish readying the shuttle and its hangar for the normal post-flight processing and begin draining residual cryogenic reactants. They'll continue deservicing work through the weekend.

The space shuttle program began on April 12, 1981 with the first launch of the space shuttle Columbia. Since then, 135 shuttle missions have been flown, using five space shuttles, and carrying 355 different people into space. The decision to end the space shuttle program was made so that NASA can focus on other goals, like sending a unmanned mission to an asteroid by 2016 and a manned mission to Mars for perhaps 2025.

The cancellation of the space shuttle program is part of President Obama’s space exploration proposal. However, there are currently no new vehicles capable of meeting the President’s long term goals. Additionally, any new program will surpasses the reach of what may or may not be President Obama’s second term. Any new President taking office could have completely different goals for space exploration and could take things in a different direction. This uncertainty has led many to lament the loss of the American space shuttle fleet.

Now that the space shuttles are all retired, NASA will be relying on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. However, commercial space flight is a growing business that may offer an alternative way to get people into space before NASA develops any new vehicles.

The Final Four :
Ferguson, Hurley, Sandra Magnus and flight engineer Rex Walheim doffed their 70-pound pressure suits and joined dozens of NASA managers, engineers and contractors, many awaiting layoffs, for a traditional runway inspection, smiling and sharing hugs and handshakes as they celebrated a safe homecoming.