It is 11 years since the last launch of a space shuttle

July 8. () –

This July 8 marks the eleventh anniversary of the last launch of a NASA space shuttle, after 30 years of running the program.

The ‘shuttle’ Atlantis starred in the STS-135 mission, lasting 13 days, with a crew of 4 astronauts, in which it transported provisional reserves for one year to the International Space Station (ISS). Upon her return on July 21, Atlantis was retired and put on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

With the last flight of Atlantis, NASA became dependent on russian ships Soyuz for manned space launches to the International Space Station. This situation lasted until 2020, with the commissioning of Space X’s Crew Dragons.

space shuttles they were used in 135 missions between 1981 and 2011. In addition to manned orbital and Space Station missions, they launched several satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope; conducted scientific experiments in orbit; and participated in the construction and servicing of the International Space Station. The total mission time of the Shuttle fleet was 722 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes, and 23 seconds, Wikipedia reports.

His fleet was composed for the ships Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor. On January 28, 1986, the Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch, due to failure of the spacecraft’s right side rocket booster motor, killing all seven astronauts on board. On February 1, 2003, the Columbia disintegrated during re-entry due to launch damage to the heat shield, killing his team of seven.