Tag Archives: Space Shuttle

At 5:57:54 a.m EDT the orbiter Atlantis came to a wheels stop at the Kennedy Space Center runway 15 marking the end of the Space Shuttle era.

Early Tuesday morning Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station, the last time an orbiter will do that. On Thursday morning at 5:56 a.m EDT Atlantis will land at the Kennedy Space Center marking the end of an era, the Space Shuttle era.

With a 70% chance of a weather violation the Space Shuttle Atlantis beat the odds and thrilled close to a million gathered people who waited hours to see the final launch of a Space Shuttle. (Video of launch available)

While everything is proceeding smoothly at this point in the countdown the weather is still an issue with “thick clouds” being the current problem. The White Room has just been closed out after the astronauts were securely fastened into the shuttle.

These amazing pictures were taken from the International Space Station by a crew member and show the starry sky and Earth’s horizon along with the orbiter Endeavour on its last mission. Pictured with Endeavour is Canada’s Dextre robot which is attached the to the space station.

NASA officials announced at 9:15 this morning that the Space Shuttle Endeavour will not launch on Monday and will not announce until Monday when the next possible launch attempt will be.

At 4:53 p.m. eastern the space shuttle Discovery launched on what is her final mission. It was a launch whose countdown went smoothly until the final few minutes when a range safety command computer malfunctioned, almost postponing the launch a day.