25 year old vehicle with 120 million miles grounded

Eric W. Shamlin • 26th May 2010 • Random Thoughts, Random Thoughts, Science & Technology

From Yahoo News:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Atlantis returned from its final voyage Wednesday, closing out a quarter-century flying career and safely bringing back six astronauts from a successful space station mission.

Atlantis — the fourth in NASA’s shuttle series — is ending its run after having spent an accumulated 294 days in orbit and circled Earth 4,648 times. It’s carried 189 astronauts and visited the International Space Station 11 times. It also flew seven times to Russia’s old Mir station and once to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The shuttle added another 4.8 million miles this time around, for a grand total of 120,650,907 miles over its lifetime. The 120-millionth mile was logged shortly after midnight.

Final Launch:

Final Landing:

Good job, NASA. Mission accomplished.