The 135th and final flight of America’s space shuttle fleet ended safely with a landing at Kennedy Space Center early Thursday — closing the three-decade lifetime of a technologically remarkable and versatile spacecraft the likes of which the world is unlikely to see for a very long time.
The shuttle Atlantis and its four crew members touched down in Florida at 5:56 a.m. EDT, shortly before sunrise, after a 13-day mission to the international space station, the now-completed laboratory that could never have been built without the huge cargo-carrying capacity of the shuttles.
“After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle’s earned its place in history. And it’s come to a final stop,” commander Christopher Ferguson radioed.
“Job well done, America,” replied mission control.
Ferguson and the rest of the crew — pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim — had been awakened hours earlier with Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America.”
Ferguson said the shuttle “has changed the way we view the world, and it’s changed the way we view our universe.”
At a midmorning news conference, shuttle program director Bill Leimbach said the landing was very emotional, with “grown men and women crying on the runway.”
He said there were tears of joy for the safe return of Atlantis and completion of the shuttle mission, but also tears of sadness, since the program was over and many people would be losing their jobs.
William Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator for Space Operations, said NASA was close to deciding on a plan under which the commercial rocket company SpaceX will begin to deliver cargo to the space station by the end of this year.
Realistically, he said, the capability of private companies to fly astronauts to the space station won’t be in place until 2015 or 2016.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said shortly after touchdown that the program was responsible for a long number of “firsts.” But he also focused on frontiers yet to be conquered.
“Children who dream of being astronauts today may not fly on the space shuttle, . . . but one day they may walk on Mars,” Bolden said. “The future belongs to us. And just like those who came before us, we have an obligation to set an ambitious course and take an inspired nation along for the journey.”
