The last flight of the shuttle through the eyes of the astronaut ISS

Exactly 5 years ago, the Atlantis shuttle returned to Earth. This was the last flight of the Space Shuttle

"Atlantis" enters the atmosphere of the Earth, returning from the ISS

On July 8, 2011, the last launch of the Atlantis shuttle on the ISS was carried out. This was the last flight of the Space Shuttle program. On board the device was a crew of four astroavtov. The crew included spacecraft commander astronaut Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and flight specialists astronauts Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. On July 19, the shuttle was undocked from the ISS module and returned to Earth on July 21.

At this time, Michael Fossum was on board the ISS, which was delivered to the station by Soyuz TMA-02M in June 2011. He also received the role of the commander of the ISS-29. July 21, Michael Fossum decided to capture the final flight of "Atlantis" on camera. According to him, during the work on the shooting, his hands were shaking - he understood that not one of the shuttles would fly anywhere else, this return of Atlantis to Earth is the last.


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Fossum has already visited the ISS twice, both times he flew the Discovery shuttle: in 2006 and 2008. During the departure of Atlantis, he remembered seeing the shuttle’s trail of fire as it landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “I remembered how bright and vivid it was, and decided that using some of the techniques of photography, I could take a great view of the landing of Atlantis from the station,” says Fossum.


Photos were taken from here, from the dome of the ISS

In order to get great shots, the astronaut had to practice. For nine days, while the Atlantis was docked to the ISS, in his free time he tried to shoot in low light. The photographer installed the camera holder on the porthole of the ISS, and shot the northern lights. For nine days, the astronaut changed many camera settings in order to achieve the best effect when shooting.



Until the moment of undocking "Atlantis", an elevated atmosphere reigned at the station. But after the shuttle undocked and a number of astronauts flew away, the mood of the remaining people changed dramatically. “On the last day, when the three shifts worked for eight hours, I decided to say so far to everyone, because I knew that they would fly away, and this would not happen again. We decided to hold a special ceremony ... ", - said Fossum.



The event was held, the astronauts said each other a lot of good, and the shuttle went home. Fossum managed to take about 100 shots during the decline of Atlantis. When photographing, he noticed that his hands were trembling, because it was all for the last time, and the historical moment should have remained in the photographs.



"Atlantis" delivered a large amount of food to the ISS, and the team made some kind of farewell party with a bunch of delicacies (if you can call it so for astronauts).


The latest launch of the shuttle "Atlantis"













Space Shuttle or simply Shuttle (English Space Shuttle - "space shuttle") - an American reusable transport spacecraft . When developing the project, it was believed that shuttles would often fly into orbit and back, delivering payloads, people and equipment.

The shuttle project was developed by North American Rockwell on behalf of NASA since 1971. When creating the system, technologies developed for the lunar modules of the Apollo program of the 1960s were used: experiments with solid-fuel boosters, systems for their separation and the production of fuel from an external tank. The project has created five shuttles and one prototype. Unfortunately, two shuttles were destroyed in disasters. Space flights were carried out from April 12, 1981 to July 21, 2011.

In 1985, NASA planned that by 1990 there will be 24 launches per year, and each space shuttle will complete up to 100 flights into space. Unfortunately, shuttles flew much less frequently - for 30 years of operation, 135 launches were made. Most of the flights (39) were made by the Discovery Shuttle.

The first operating reusable orbiter was the shuttle Columbia. It began to be built in March 1975, and in March 1979 it was transferred to the NASA Kennedy Space Center. Unfortunately, the Columbia shuttle was killed in a crash on February 1, 2003, when the spacecraft entered the Earth’s atmosphere for landing.


The last landing of "Atlantis" marked the end of an era