Atlantis Touches Down

Rather unusually we didn't follow NASA's latest shuttle mission this week. The fact that it is exam week didn't help. Well anyway, here is photo from the NASA website of Atlantis touching down in Florida after completing mission STS - 129, a delivery of spare parts to the International Space Station. Only five shuttle flights remain, all to the space station next year. Station construction will essentially end at that point, so NASA used the trip to send up as many hefty spare parts as possible. None of the other visiting spacecraft — from Russia, Japan and Europe — can carry so much in a single load. Atlantis, which delivered nearly 15 tonnes of gear, left the space station 86% complete. The shuttle is due to be replaced by the Ares I rocket and Orion capsule. For more information on the space shuttle, click here. To watch a video of the touch down, click here.

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