On May 26, 2010 at 11:42 UTC the space shuttle "Atlantis” (STS-132 flight) with a crew of six landed at runway 15, Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, USA.
Atlantis delivered the Russian "Rassvet” (MRM-1) research module and spare parts to the International Space Station . During the 12-day mission, the astronauts made three spacewalks and replaced some equipment, including batteries.
Six astronauts returned to Earth: Kenneth Ham, Dominic Antonnelli, Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Stephen Bowen and Piers Sellers.
They spent in space 11 days, 18 hours, 28 minutes and 2 seconds.
This was the last scheduled flight for Atlantis. During its flight career Atlantis performed 32 space flights.
NASA plans to scrap the shuttle program by the end of the year. The U.S. space agency says the shuttles are outdated and too expensive to maintain.
There are two scheduled shuttle flights remaining - Discovery will be launched to the ISS in September, while the planned mid-November launch of Endeavour is expected to mark the end of the U.S. program.
Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft will take U.S. astronauts and cargos to the space station after NASA stops launching its shuttles. Attachments: |