{"id":136761,"date":"2026-07-26T09:08:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T09:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2026\/07\/26\/the-last-space-shuttle-returned-to-earth-15-years-ago\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T09:09:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T09:09:05","slug":"the-last-space-shuttle-returned-to-earth-15-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2026\/07\/26\/the-last-space-shuttle-returned-to-earth-15-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"The last Space Shuttle returned to Earth 15 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

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SCIENCE<\/p>\n

So, how are these industrial replacements understanding for you, NASA?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This week marks 15 years since a House Shuttle final returned from orbit and the tip of NASA’s House Shuttle program.<\/p>\n

House Shuttle Atlantis landed on the Shuttle Touchdown Facility (SLF) at Kennedy House Middle 15 years in the past this week, marking the ultimate mission for this system.<\/p>\n

STS-135 was initially designated STS-335, the Launch On Want (LON) mission for the earlier STS-134 flight of House Shuttle Endeavour. LON missions had been a characteristic of the House Shuttle program following the Columbia catastrophe. <\/p>\n

If a House Shuttle was broken, one other may very well be launched at quick discover to rescue the crew. NASA assigned Launch On Want flights separate STS-3xx designations, so the rescue mission for STS-116 was STS-317, STS-117 was STS-318, and so forth. There have been exceptions (a notable one was the STS-125 Hubble servicing mission, which had STS-400 able to go if something went flawed), however the House Shuttle program ought to have ended with STS-134. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, lawmakers and NASA managers opted to make STS-135 the ultimate House Shuttle mission. There may very well be no Launch On Want mission ready within the wings this time round \u2013 the House Shuttle program was being wound down \u2013 so the crew would have needed to come down from the Worldwide House Station (ISS) aboard Soyuz capsules if Atlantis couldn’t return to Earth safely. There have been additionally solely 4 crew members, a determine not seen for the reason that STS-6 mission of Challenger in 1983.<\/p>\n

The crew was commanded by Christopher Ferguson, who would later be a part of Boeing’s Industrial Crew Program and was assigned to (though didn’t fly) Boeing’s calamity capsule, the Starliner. The pilot for STS-135 was Douglas Hurley, who went on to fly the primary crewed check flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in 2020. Rounding out the crew have been mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim.<\/p>\n

The launch occurred on July 8, 2011, and Atlantis returned from orbit on July 21, bringing the House Shuttle program to a conclusion.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t, nevertheless, the tip of crewed spaceflight for the US, though the hole that adopted was significantly larger than anticipated or hoped. After the House Shuttle retired, the US was depending on Russia for getting its astronauts to and from the ISS. NASA later awarded Industrial Crew contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to revive launches from US soil, nevertheless it took SpaceX till 2020 to get the primary people to the outpost, and Boeing till 2024.<\/p>\n

The latter’s mission was marked by ignominy attributable to failures and faults through the mission that meant managers opted to ship the capsule again to Earth empty from the ISS and have the Starliner flight check crew return in 2025 aboard a SpaceX automobile. NASA and Boeing have but to set a definitive date for when a crew would possibly enterprise to the ISS as soon as once more aboard Starliner.<\/p>\n

All of which, 15 years after a House Shuttle returned from orbit for the final time, has left the US house company in a little bit of a pickle. As an alternative of relying on the House Shuttle, the plan was to scale back threat and add redundancy to US capabilities with two suppliers, however issues have not labored out that approach. To make issues worse, there’s uncertainty about how for much longer SpaceX will proceed to fly the Crew Dragon past its contracted missions. The automobile is reusable, however no extra are deliberate to be manufactured, and SpaceX reckons that every needs to be good for 15 flights, with some refurbishment.<\/p>\n

This needs to be sufficient to get via to the tip of the ISS program and past, however in the long term another will probably be required. For SpaceX, it will possible be Starship.<\/p>\n

The destiny of the House Shuttles themselves can also be not fully set. Atlantis has been staged in a facility at Kennedy House Middle as if in orbit, and the California Science Middle has mounted House Shuttle Endeavour on an exterior tank and strong rocket boosters, as if prepared for launch. The destiny of House Shuttle Discovery is, nevertheless, unsure. Sure lawmakers would very very like to move the retired orbiter from the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Middle in Virginia to Houston, Texas. <\/p>\n

For others, nicely, there’s all the time a used Orion capsule. \u00ae<\/p>\n<\/div>\n