The End of an Era..

 On July the 8th, at 3.26pm precisely, the Atlantis orbiter will make it's last trip from the Kennedy Space Station to the ISS (International Space Station). After which it will be retired and the next phase of space exploration will take place (unmanned robots and private ventures). It's payload includes a years worth of food, which will help with the next phase of private venture if they struggle to meet their deadlines.

Of course for those of you who know the date today (and yesterday), the shuttle will take off the day after Independence Day, it's a bit like the film. The four lucky astronauts are Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim. For those of you who are interested in seeing the launch, NASA will be providing live footage of the event on their website.

I'd just like to finish up with some Space Shuttle related facts,

"The 8 July ascent will be the 135th shuttle launch and the 33rd of Atlantis.

In total, 355 individuals will have flown 852 times on those 135 missions since the very first shuttle flight on 12 April, 1981.

The five orbiters used over the course of the programme have flown 864,401,200km (537,114,016 miles) - a distance roughly similar to travelling from the Earth to the Sun and back three times.

Atlantis will add a further 6.5 million km (four million miles) to that total."

Enjoy,

Dave