Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for final time
July 8th, 2011 - 10:50 pm ICT by IANSWashington, July 8 (IANS) The space shuttle Atlantis Friday lifted off on the final mission of US’s 30-year space-shuttle programme, CNN reported.
The four-member crew blasted off on a 12-day mission just before 11:30 a.m. The four — all shuttle veterans — are on their way to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, the broadcaster said.
The possibility of storms had raised doubt whether the launch would take place as planned, but NASA gave the shuttle a “go” for launch a few minutes before liftoff.
Thousands of people, including some who came to the Kennedy Space Centre three decades ago for the first launch, were gathered to watch.
One onlooker flew in with a friend Thursday from New York. Unable to find a hotel, the men went to a Walmart and picked up a tent, air mattresses and some tortilla chips and camped out on a nearby spit of land to wait for the launch, the CNN said.
Violent storms Thursday prompted NASA teams to carry out checks on the shuttle, which NASA said escaped damage from two nearby lightning strikes.
President Richard Nixon commissioned the space shuttle programme in 1972, three years after the Apollo programme put the man on the moon.
The first shuttle, Columbia, blasted off in April 1981. Since then, space shuttle crews have fixed satellites, performed scientific studies, and ferried materials and people to International Space Station Alpha, a football field-sized construction project in orbit.
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- Atlantis docks for last time with International Space Station - Jul 11, 2011
- Atlantis docks with space station one last time - Jul 10, 2011
- NASA transfers shuttle Discovery to museum - Apr 20, 2012
- Space shuttle Endeavour returns to Earth after final mission - Jun 01, 2011
- US shuttle Atlantis lifts off for final journey - May 15, 2010
- Space Shuttle Atlantis On Its Last Mission - May 15, 2010
- Space shuttle Atlantis makes final landing - Jul 21, 2011
- Atlantis starts home journey - May 23, 2010
- NASA's space shuttle Atlantis ready to launch on November 16 - Oct 30, 2009
- Shuttle Atlantis makes its last landing - Jul 21, 2011
- Atlantis' landing ends final mission after 30 years of space shuttle era - Jul 21, 2011
- Shuttle Atlantis returns home for last time - May 26, 2010
- NASA delays shuttle Endeavour's launch - Apr 30, 2011
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