The Kennedy Space Centre has waved goodbye to the space shuttle Atlantis as it made one last 10 mile trip on Tuesday (6 November 2012) to a custom-built museum where it will remain in retirement.
The journey took over 11 hours to complete as Atlantis could only reach a maximum speed of around 2 miles per hour, carried atop a 76-wheeled platform. Atlantis made several stops along the way to allow members of the public and Nasa astronauts to celebrate the shuttle and its achievements. Famous astronauts in attendance included Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle commander.
Atlantis flew a total of 33 missions between 1985 and 2011 and had the honor of completing the last flight of any space shuttle before the fleet was retired in 2011. During its time in service, Atlantis orbited the Earth 4,848 times and travelled 126 million miles (203 million kilometres).
Atlantis was one of five orbiter space shuttles to be built, alongside Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Endeavour. Columbia was the first to fly, in 1981, and the next 30 years saw a total of 135 shuttle missions. Atlantis is the last of the 3 remaining shuttles to be retired. Challenger, Columbia and theirs crews were lost in tragic disasters in 1986 and 2003 respectively. Discovery and Endeavour both made their way to retirement museums earlier this year.
The retirement of the Nasa space shuttle programme means that the organisation is no longer capable of sending humans into space. However Nasa has recently awarded contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation to transport cargo to the International Space Station. Last month SpaceX’s Dragon completed its first resupply mission to the station.
The departure of Atlantis from the Kennedy Space Centre Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida makes this the first time the Kennedy Space Centre has been without an orbiter since 1979. Its new home will be a specially constructed museum at the nearby Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex. Atlantis’ vast 24 metre wingspan means that the final wall of the building could be completed after the shuttle had arrived there. The museum will be open to the public in July 2013.
