Article Posted on : - Jul 21, 2011

Space shuttle Atlantis lands for the final time at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today. Photo: NASA.

WASHINGTON (BNS): Bringing a glorious and highly successful era to an end, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis on Thursday touched down at Kennedy Space Center's Runway 15, after completing its 13-day long final space mission.

It was the 25th night landing, the 78th landing at Kennedy and the 133rd landing in shuttle history.

Atlantis' main gear touched down at 5:57 a.m. (EDT) followed by the nose gear at 5:57:20 and wheels stop at 5:57:54 a.m. At wheels stop, the mission elapsed time was 12 days, 18 hours, 28 minutes and 50 seconds, according to a NASA press statement.

"After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history. It’s come to a final stop," said Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson.

The STS-135 (Shuttle Atlantis) crew consisted of Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. They delivered more than 9,400 pounds of spare parts, spare equipment and other supplies in the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module - including 2,677 pounds of food - that will sustain space station operations for the next year. The 21-foot long, 15-foot diameter Raffaello brought back nearly 5,700 pounds of unneeded materials from the station, the release added.

STS-135 was the 33rd and final flight for Atlantis, which spent 307 days in space, orbited Earth 4,848 times and traveled 125,935,769 miles.