Skip to main content

Watch the final space shuttle launch on its 10th anniversary

NASA this week marked the 10th anniversary of the final space shuttle launch, which took place on July 8, 2011.

The space agency on Thursday reposted a video of the launch of mission STS-135 from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space in Florida. Aboard the space shuttle Atlantis were NASA astronauts Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus, and Rex Walheim.

NASA's Final Space Shuttle Launch 10th Anniversary Replay

“Ten years ago, Atlantis rose from the launch pad on a plume of fire and parted the high clouds on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) and to its place in history,” NASA said in a message accompanying the video. “The 11:29 a.m. ET lift-off on July 8, 2011, marked the last time a space shuttle would climb from Kennedy’s seaside launch complex to soar toward the heavens.”

The mission lasted 12 days and 18 hours and involved the crew delivering supplies and equipment to the ISS.

The first space shuttle launch took place in 1981, with more than 350 astronauts from 16 countries flying aboard one of the five shuttles in 135 missions over the next 30 years. The spacecraft traveled more than 540 million miles during its time and carried some 2,000 experiments to space. It also played an important role in the construction of the ISS.

Despite its many successes, the space shuttle program also suffered several tragedies, with seven astronauts dying aboard Challenger when its external fuel tank exploded during launch in January 1986, and another seven astronauts losing their lives aboard Columbia when the spacecraft broke apart as it entered Earth’s atmosphere at the end of a mission in February 2003.

In the end, safety concerns and ballooning costs prompted the closure of the space shuttle program.

NASA had to wait almost a decade before it could launch astronauts from U.S. soil again, with private space transportation company SpaceX enabling domestic launches with its reusable Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft. The first astronauts to fly in the Crew Dragon were Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in a test mission last year.

“With a merging of technology and tears, the final chapter in the 30-year history of space shuttle flights has been written,” NASA said shortly after Atlantis returned home nearly 10 years ago. “For all who have worked to send these first-of-a-kind engineering marvels to space and return them to Earth, all who have flown aboard them, and all who have simply watched with awe and pride as they flew, space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-135 mission was an emotional end of an era.”

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
NASA switches SpaceX’s Crew-8 launch date again
SpaceX Crew-8 ahead of their flight to the space station.

Just a couple of days after NASA announced it was delaying the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by a week, the agency has come back to say it’s pushing back the earliest possible launch date by another two days.

It means the Crew-8 mission will launch no earlier than Friday, March 1.

Read more
Watch SpaceX stack its Starship rocket in super-quick time
SpaceX's Starship spacecraft atop the Super Heavy booster.

SpaceX has shared a cool video showing its robotic “Mechazilla” launch tower stacking its Starship rocket ahead of the vehicle's third test flight.

SpaceX sped up the video (below) to show the stacking process in super-quick time. As the footage shows, the tower at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, uses two arms to grab the rocket’s upper stage before carrying it to the top of the first-stage booster. The company also shared some spectacular images showing the rocket at the launch site on the coast of southern Texas.

Read more
How to watch NASA and SpaceX launch a private lunar lander mission this week
The Nova-C lunar lander is encapsulated within the fairing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in preparation for launch, as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign.

NASA will launch the latest mission to the moon late on Tuesday, February 13 (or early on Wednesday, February 14, depending on where you live). As part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, the company Intuitive Machines will launch its first lunar lander, with the aim of delivering science payloads to the surface of the moon.

NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV's Media Channel

Read more