The final mission of the American Space Shuttle landed successfully today. The 14 day mission was a success with no complications. There were four astronauts on this mission; Christopher Ferguson was the commander, Douglas Hurley was the pilot, Sandra Magnus was a mission specialist, and Rex Walheim was the flight engineer. This mission marked the 166th NASA manned space flight, and the 3rd flight of the Atlantis space shuttle.
The shuttle landed at exactly 5:57am after 200 orbits around the Earth. In total, the shuttle traveled 5,284,862 miles. The mission was focused on bringing spare parts, experiments, and equipment to the International Space Station.
Now that this program is over, NASA will start to focus on exploring space without the shuttle program. For NASA employees and astronauts, this is a bittersweet time. The program was massively successful, despite the fact that it has ended.