The last Space Shuttle mission launched on July 8, 2011

The last Space Shuttle mission, STS-135, launched at 11:29 a.m. EDT on July 8, 2011, when Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A; it landed on July 21, closing the 30-year program after 135 flights.

It nearly didn’t go that day. The forecast was 70% “no-go”, and a last-minute check on whether the gaseous oxygen vent arm had retracted held the count at T-31 seconds, with less than a minute left in the launch window. Nearly a million spectators lined the beaches and causeways.

The crew was just four, Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim, so that if Atlantis were damaged on the way up they could be kept on the space station until another ride home. Their job was hauling: more than 9,400 pounds of supplies in the Raffaello module plus 2,200 on the middeck, enough to keep the station stocked for over a year.

Before leaving, Ferguson gave the station crew a US flag that had flown on STS-1, the first shuttle mission, in 1981. It was fixed to the hatch of the Harmony module, to be collected by the next crew to launch from American soil on an American spacecraft. That took nearly nine years. On May 31, 2020, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour arrived, and its crew, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, STS-135’s pilot, floated through the same hatch.

“When a generation accomplishes a great thing, it’s got a right to stand back and for just a moment admire and take pride in its work.” — Commander Chris Ferguson, as Atlantis left the station

Atlantis touched down at 5:57 a.m. EDT on July 21, the program’s 26th night landing. It was the orbiter’s 33rd flight; over its career it spent 307 days in space and travelled nearly 126 million miles.