The docking capped a two-day journey that began with an emotional send-off from the Kennedy Space Center, where about 1 million spectators gathered to watch the shuttle thunder into the sky for the program's 135th and final flight <\/p>\n
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CAPE CANAVERAL, USA: U.S. space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday to deliver a last batch of supplies to the orbiting outpost on the final flight of the U.S. shuttle program. <\/p>\n
Commander Chris Ferguson gently eased Atlantis into its parking slip on the station's Harmony node at 11:07 a.m. EDT as the spacecraft soared 230 miles over the Pacific Ocean. <\/p>\n
\"Welcome to the International Space Station for the last time,\" station flight engineer Ron Garan radioed to the crew. <\/p>\n
Crews opened Atlantis' hatch less than two hours later and the shuttle's 4-member crew floated through the airlock into the recently completed $100 billion orbital outpost. <\/p>\n
After a 30-year history that has cost nearly $200 billion and claimed the lives of 14 astronauts, the shuttles are being retired to make way for a new generation of spacecraft that President Barack Obama says will put U.S. astronauts on an asteroid and then on to Mars. <\/p>\n
The docking capped a two-day journey that began with an emotional send-off from the Kennedy Space Center, where about 1 million spectators gathered on Friday to watch the shuttle thunder into the sky for the program's 135th and final flight. <\/p>\n
About an hour before docking, Ferguson gently somersaulted Atlantis so Garan and crew-mates aboard the station could photograph the shuttle's delicate heat-resistant tiles. <\/p>\n
\"Poetry in motion,\" said mission commentator Rob Navias as television cameras aboard the station relayed video of the sleek spaceship slowly backflipping over the cloud-speckled northern Atlantic Ocean. <\/p>\n
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Atlantis docks at space station on last mission<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The docking capped a two-day journey that began with an emotional send-off from the Kennedy Space Center, where about 1 million spectators gathered to watch the shuttle thunder into the sky for the program's 135th and final flight News | CAPE CANAVERAL, USA: U.S. space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday to deliver a last batch of supplies to the orbiting outpost on the final flight of the U.S. shuttle program Continue reading