Atlantis has landed, ending NASA's shuttle era

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, July 21, 2011 (Reuters) — The space shuttle Atlantis returned from NASA's final shuttle mission on Thursday, ending a 30-year era that opened the space frontier, exposed its dangers and established a toehold for future endeavors beyond Earth.

Space shuttle Atlantis STS-135 lands at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida July 21, 2011. REUTERS/Scott Audette

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NASA workers lined the runway at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida before dawn to greet Atlantis and its crew after a 13-day cargo run to the International Space Station and to mark the conclusion of the shuttle program after 135 flights.
"I saw grown men and grown women crying today, tears of joy to be sure," said shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach. "Human emotions came out on the runway today. You couldn't suppress them."
Sailing through an unusually clear and moonlit night, Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson gently steered the 100-tonne spaceship high overhead then dived toward the swamp-surrounded landing strip a few miles (kilometers) from where Atlantis will go on display as a museum piece.
Double sonic booms shattered the silence, the last time residents will hear the distinctive sound of a shuttle coming home.
Ferguson eased Atlantis onto the runway at 5:57 a.m. EDT, ending a 5.2 million mile (8.4 million km) journey and closing a key chapter in human space flight.
"Mission complete, Houston," Ferguson radioed to Mission Control.
Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana told reporters: "It's been our number one goal the last couple of years to safely fly out the shuttle program and we accomplished that."