End of the Shuttle Era
Space Shuttle Atlantis began her final descent from space this morning at 4:49, Eastern Daylight Time when her engines were fired to drop her back into Earth’s atmosphere. Just over an hour later, her wheels touched the tarmac at Kennedy Space Center. She was the oldest Orbiter in the shuttle fleet after the losses of Challenger and Columbia, and was the last to visit space.
The Shuttle Fleet was designed in the early 1970s, and the first operational flight was in 1982.
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