20111776 Club
Atlantis rolls to a stop; thirty years of shuttle flight ends before dawn
Four astronauts, the smallest crew since 1983, bring home the last shuttle mission after 4,848 orbits.
By 2011, the Space Shuttle had flown for three decades, carrying astronauts and cargo to build a space station piece by piece. In the predawn dark of July 21, 2011, Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center, ending STS-135, a 12-day, 18-hour resupply mission that left the International Space Station stocked into 2012. Commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim formed the smallest shuttle crew since 1983. Mission Commentator Rob Navias marked the wheel stop by noting the ship's voyage was at an end…
