STS-135 was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter Atlantis and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 launched on July 8, 2011, and landed on July 21, 2011, following a one-day mission extension. The four-person crew was the smallest of any shuttle mission since STS-6 in April 1983. The mission's primary cargo was the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Raffaello and a Lightweight Multi-Purpose Carrier (LMC), which were delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). The flight of Raffaello marked the only time that Atlantis carried an MPLM.
Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011, bringing the Space Shuttle program to an end.
Official crew portrait of Walheim, Hurley, Ferguson, and Magnus.Space Shuttle program← STS-134
STS-135 mission poster.
Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report, salutes the crew during their appearance for a taping of his television show.
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development.
Discovery lifts off at the start of the STS-120 mission.
Columbia undergoing installation of its ceramic tiles
Enterprise during the Approach and Landing Tests
Columbia launching on STS-1