Forty-six year old Christian happily negotiating the world with a wife and three daughters
Today, the final US Space Shuttle, Atlantis, landed safely, bringing to an end 30 years of space travel and 135 missions since the first launch in 1981.
The safe landing of Atlantis (STS-135) Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Here’s how it was seen on Twitter:
Last space shuttle lands in Florida, closing out a three-decade NASA program
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) July 21, 2011
Goodbye #shuttle x
— Paul Baker (@maidbloke) July 21, 2011
#Atlantis touches down for final time, bringing #Nasa's 30-year #shuttle programme to close http://bbc.in/nP09d9
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) July 21, 2011
— Q A Pesto (@Quaristice) July 21, 2011
Atlantis landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center after 200 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,284,862 miles on STS-135
— NASA (@NASA) July 21, 2011
It was the 25th night landing, the 78th landing at Kennedy and the133rd landing in shuttle history.
— NASA (@NASA) July 21, 2011
First picture of #Atlantis touching down after final mission, bringing #Nasa's 30-year #shuttle programme to close http://twitpic.com/5tepus
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) July 21, 2011
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.
— NASA (@NASA) July 21, 2011
Read Administrator Bolden's blog on his thoughts on the final shuttle landing http://t.co/uPu2Ghm
— NASA (@NASA) July 21, 2011
RIP Space Shuttle – pushing the boundaries of space travel for 30 years. Missed by all, especially 3000 #NASA employees.
— Phil Bray (@PhilBray) July 21, 2011
Official Atlantis landing times: Main Gear 5:57:00 a.m. EDT, Nose Gear 5:57:20 a.m. & Wheel Stop 5:57:54 a.m.
— NASA (@NASA) July 21, 2011
Now #Atlantis is down, we impatiently wait for @AdamRutherford's finished shuttle tribute film. It'll be epic. (cc @Treesiepops)
— Q A Pesto (@Quaristice) July 21, 2011
Watch Atlantis return to Earth for the space shuttle program's final landing: http://go.nasa.gov/oeJXh2
— NASA (@NASA) July 21, 2011
Atlantis touches down at Kennedy Space Center Check it out!! http://flic.kr/p/a5FASB
— NASA HQ PHOTO (@nasahqphoto) July 21, 2011
Atlantis lands after final mission http://tgr.ph/naOhmn
— Telegraph News (@TelegraphNews) July 21, 2011
Space Shuttle Atlantis Lands For the Last Time [VIDEO] – http://on.mash.to/qzDpin
— Mashable (@mashable) July 21, 2011
[Today's Pic] The Voyage Home http://go.nasa.gov/nr1BFH #iotd
— NASA (@NASA) July 21, 2011
Glad to see Atlantis landed safely. Congrats to crew & all of @NASA. Excited about ushering in a bold new era of exploration in space.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 21, 2011
Final touchdown! Atlantis landed, ending Shuttle era. Thanks for all the good memories! シャトル長い間ありがとう！ http://twitpic.com/5ti5ni
— Soichi Noguchi 野口 聡－ (@Astro_Soichi) July 21, 2011
The Space Shuttle: the complete missions http://t.co/fEm9DOW All 135 missions in order set to the music of @65dos
— Dr Adam Rutherford (@AdamRutherford) July 21, 2011
The Space Shuttle’s missions may be over. It will never be forgotten.
Micropoetry
A Few Ramblings...
Thanks for the mention Phil. I vaugely remember the first launch being on TV at school in 1981 as a special treat but I don’t remember taking much notice. I was in my last year of junior school then, just as my daughter is right now – a strange mirroring of generations. The Shuttle was certainly an amazing bit of engineering and it is sad to see it go.