July 8th - on this day in 2011, the final launch of the Space Shuttle program took place when Atlantis lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station. The final Space Shuttle crew included only four astronauts: Commander Christopher Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. On this last mission the Space Shuttle carried 12,890 kg of payload mass to the orbital outpost. | NASAS

11K views · 375 reactions | On July 8, 2011, the Space Shuttle...

launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135, which took place on July 8, 2011, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. STS-135 was not just another launch — it was the final mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle program after more than 30 years of spaceflight. With this launch, the Space Shuttle era officially came to an end. Atlantis carried critical supplies and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS), ensuring astronauts could continue living and working in space after the shuttle pr