Space Shuttle Atlantis' final mission (49 images)

NASA's space shuttle "Atlantis" returns "home" to the Kennedy Space Center's Landing Facility Runway 15 for the final time at 5:56 am on July 21, 2011. Carrying a crew of four and the Raffaello Logistics Module, the mission flew to the Space Station with enough equipment and supplies to support the outpost for the next year. The return of Atlantis closes the book on the Space Shuttle Program. Spanning thirty years, NASA's fleet of orbiters conducted 135 missions; launching satellites, including Galileo and Magellan to the planets, conducted scientific research, boosted and repaired the Hubble Space Telescope and completed construction of the International Space Station. Atlantis will be retired but remain in Florida on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. .UPI/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell

NASA's space shuttle "Atlantis" returns "home" to the Kennedy Space Center's Landing Facility Runway 15 for the final time at 5:56 am on July 21, 2011. Carrying a crew of four and the Raffaello Logistics Module, the mission flew to the Space Station with enough equipment and supplies to support the outpost for the next year. The return of Atlantis closes the book on the Space Shuttle Program. Spanning thirty years, NASA's fleet of orbiters conducted 135 missions; launching satellites, including Galileo and Magellan to the planets, conducted scientific research, boosted and repaired the Hubble Space Telescope and completed construction of the International Space Station. Atlantis will be retired but remain in Florida on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. .UPI/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell

This NASA images taken on July 19, 2011 shows the International Space Station seen from a window of Space Shuttle Atlantis as it departs the Station on the final days of NASA mission STS-135. STS-135 is the final shuttle mission to the orbital laboratory. UPI/NASA

This NASA image taken on July 15, 2011 shows the International Space Station Expedition 28 crew and the mission STS-135 Atlantis astronauts as they form a circle for a portrait aboard the orbiting complex's Kibo laboratory of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The STS-135 crew consists of NASA astronauts Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim; the Expedition 28 crewmembers are JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, NASA astronauts Ron Garan and Mike Fossum, and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev and Sergei Volkov. Shuttle and station commanders Ferguson and Borisenko are in the 12 o'clock and six o'clock positions, respectively, on the circle. The U.S. flag pictured was flown on the first space shuttle mission, STS-1, and flew on this mission to be presented to the space station crew. It will remain onboard until the next crew launched from the U.S. will retrieve it for return to Earth. It will fly from Earth again, with the crew that launches from the U.S. on a journey of exploration beyond Earth orbit. Atlantis is at the Space Station for the final mission of NASA's space shuttle progra. UPI/NASA.