CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Media photograph space shuttle Atlantis as it is slowly towed from the Shuttle Landing Facility runway to Orbiter Processing Facility-2 for the last time. Atlantis' final return to Earth on Runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 5:57 a.m. EDT July 21, 2011. Securing the space shuttle fleet's place in history, Atlantis marks the 26th nighttime landing of NASA's Space Shuttle Program and the 78th landing at Kennedy. Atlantis and its crew delivered to the International Space Station the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with more than 9,400 pounds of spare parts, equipment and supplies that will sustain station operations for the next year. STS-135 is the 33rd and final flight for Atlantis and the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-5787

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The Space Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise (OV-101) during a public display to celebrate the Air and Space Bicentennial. The Enterprise is mounted on the NASA 747-123 Space Shuttle Orbiter carrier aircraft

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Atlantis is towed out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) transfer aisle and around to the VAB high bay 4 doors. Shuttle Atlantis will remain in temporary storage in high bay 4, while Space Shuttle Program transition and retirement work continues on Discovery and Endeavour in the orbiter processing facilities. Atlantis is being prepared for display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-2012-1220

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - With space shuttle Discovery secured to its back, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is positioned for takeoff at the north end of runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The duo departed Kennedy at 7 a.m. EDT. The aircraft, known as an SCA, is a Boeing 747 jet, originally manufactured for commercial use, which was modified by NASA to transport the shuttles between destinations on Earth. This SCA, designated NASA 905, is assigned to the remaining ferry missions, delivering the shuttles to their permanent public display sites. NASA 905 carried Discovery to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on April 17, after which the shuttle will be placed on display in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. For more information on the SCA, visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS- 013-DFRC.html. For more information on shuttle transition and retirement activities, visit http://www .nasa.gov/transition. Photo credit: NASA/Rusty Backer KSC-2012-2481

JSC2001-E-19790 (July 2001) --- A computer-generated representation showing the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) lifting the Quest Airlock out of the payload bay of the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-104 mission. JSC2001E19790

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Atlantis rolls past NASA's new mobile launcher on its way from Orbiter Processing Facility-2 to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis will be stored temporarily in the VAB while transition and retirement processing resumes on shuttle Endeavour in the processing hangar. Endeavour is being prepared for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. A groundbreaking was held Jan. 18 for Atlantis' future home -- a 65,000-square-foot exhibit in Shuttle Plaza at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. For additional information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann KSC-2012-1093

STS-132 - EOM - Public domain NASA photogrpaph

Kim Shiflett KSC-2011-5787

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Summary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Media photograph space shuttle Atlantis as it is slowly towed from the Shuttle Landing Facility runway to Orbiter Processing Facility-2 for the last time. Atlantis' final return to Earth on Runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 5:57 a.m. EDT July 21, 2011. Securing the space shuttle fleet's place in history, Atlantis marks the 26th nighttime landing of NASA's Space Shuttle Program and the 78th landing at Kennedy. Atlantis and its crew delivered to the International Space Station the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with more than 9,400 pounds of spare parts, equipment and supplies that will sustain station operations for the next year. STS-135 is the 33rd and final flight for Atlantis and the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Space Shuttle Program

The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.