STS-135

Earlier today the Space Shuttle Atlantis embarked on the final mission of the NASA Space Shuttle program, bringing to a close three decades of manned spaceflight aboard the iconic orbiter:

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I'm sure that a lot of people who grew up in the Shuttle era were unimpressed with the launches which, by design, were supposed to make manned spaceflight a routine fixture of the American aerospace program.  But I was nonetheless captivated by the Shuttle as a child.  Maybe this isn't surprising, considering how much of a little nerd I was (my bedroom doubled as a staging area for the periodic battles between my own Space Shuttle model and the Millennium Falcon).  It's hard to believe that after its scheduled July 20 landing, Atlantis and the rest of the fleet will be officially retired.

Without the Shuttle fleet, many of NASA's greatest achievements would have been impossible—Skylab, the Hubble telescope, and the International Space Station, to name a few.  

Of course this blog post wouldn't be complete without some interesting Shuttle facts; you can blame my undying love of pointless trivia for the following (via NASA):

• During the 8 1/2 minutes after launch, a Shuttle will burn 3.5 million pounds of propellant.
• In case you were wondering, the Shuttle maxes out at 44 million horsepower.
• What kind of fuel could possibly accomplish this feat?  Aluminum powder.
• The Shuttle reaches speeds of over 14,700 mph during launch—that's Mach 20.
• You could boil iron inside the main engines during liftoff (it heats up to over 6,000º F in there).
• Each Shuttle contains over 230 miles of wire.
• While in orbit, the orbiter must operate in -250º F.  During re-entry it has to endure temperatures up to 3,000º F.
• The Shuttle has over 2.5 million parts, and is the most complex machine ever built.

Now wasn't all that trivia satisfying?

The Atlantic has a wonderful history of the Shuttle in pictures.  This photo collection does a remarkable job of capturing the scale and scope of the program.  Below is my favorite:

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(Remember what I said about being a nerd?)