NASA regularly shares footage on its social media handles of missions presently underway. However often, it takes us down the reminiscence lane too. On Thursday, July 8, the American area company shared photos of a mission from a decade in the past on its Twitter and Instagram handles. It was on this present day again in 2011 that area shuttle Atlantis lifted off from the John F. Kennedy House Heart in Florida. In a four-slide submit on Instagram, NASA shared photos of Atlantis lifting off, “driving a plume of fireplace,” to the Worldwide House Station.
The third image within the submit reveals the spacecraft within the area, and the fourth touchdown again after finishing the mission. That was additionally the final flight of the Atlantis. “Precisely 10 years in the past at the moment, the ultimate mission of our American House Shuttle Program lifted off from @NASAKennedy at 11:29 a.m. EDT en path to the Worldwide House Station (@ISS),” learn the caption to the submit.
NASA it was an emotional finish to an period for a lot of. “This launch was the ultimate chapter in a 30-year historical past of area shuttle flights from the Florida House Coast,” the submit additional learn.
Aboard the shuttle Atlantis was a crew of 4 NASA astronauts — Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, together with Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim — who set on the STS-135 mission. Throughout this closing area shuttle mission, the crew delivered payloads and provides to assist the Worldwide House Station for a couple of 12 months, mentioned NASA.
This is a GIF of the Orbiter Atlantis lifting off from the Keneddy House Centre, posted on Twitter by NASA.
The Grand Finale ???? House shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy House Heart 10 years in the past at the moment, marking the final launch of the House Shuttle Program.
The STS-135 mission delivered payloads & provides to assist the @Space_Station for greater than 1 12 months: https://t.co/E50rCaKbZE pic.twitter.com/pVWY3nMrQ7
— NASA’s Kennedy House Heart (@NASAKennedy) July 8, 2021
On July 15, 2011, Barack Obama, the then-US President, held a radio dialog with the mixed shuttle and station crews. “We’re all watching as the ten of you’re employed collectively as a group,” Obama mentioned. Your instance means a lot not simply to your fellow Individuals, but in addition your fellow residents on Earth, the previous President added. The area programme has at all times embodied our sense of journey and explorations and braveness, he additional mentioned.
On July 21, 2011, as seen within the final image of the submit, Atlantis dropped out of the predawn darkness and landed at Kennedy’s Shuttle Touchdown Facility Runway 15.
“Caught within the final seconds by the runway lights, an area shuttle rolled to a cease for the ultimate time,” mentioned the company.