The Space shuttle Atlantis will begin a 12-day mission to the International Space Station on Friday. Atlantis will carry a crew of four, and when it returns to Earth it will be decommissioned and will go on display at the Kennedy visitor complex.
Atlantis represents the climax of America’s 30-year space exploration program. The space shuttle’s final mission will impact NASA greatly: “Thousands of shuttle workers will lose their jobs soon after Atlantis and its four astronauts return from the 12-day space station delivery mission,” the Huffington Post writes.
Interested in watching the Atlantis launch live? NASA.gov states on its homepage anyone can view the launch by heading to its site to watch a livestream of the momentous occasion.
The STS-135 astronauts on Atlantis are: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.
The U.S. space shuttle program began in 1981 with STS-1, the the first time in history a new spacecraft was launched on its maiden voyage with a crew aboard, NASA writes.
