Atlantis Lands Safely for Last Time

The space shuttle Atlantis and its crew have returned to Earth – in what marks an historic moment in space travel history.

The shuttle completed a 5.2 million mile journey as it landed at the Kennedy Space Station in Florida.

It landed at 11 o’clock (Irish time) this morning at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

The shuttle’s safe landing now means over 2,000 workers are scheduled to get layoff notices this week.

NASA’s Allard Beutel says there are a whole mixture of feelings.

Beutel said: “We’ve known that the shuttle programme was going to be shut down since 2004 but obviously it truly will be the last day of work and it happens to coinside with the landing as well. I think you’re going to see a lot of emotions.”

David Moore of Astronomy Ireland says the Americans will now have to do a u-turn on their space relations with the Russians, in order to bring people to and from the International Space Station.

Moore told 98FM News: “This is a bit of an embarrassment for NASA, because they can’t put people in space with their own launchers.

“So they have to rely on the Russians. They have a Soyuz vehicle that’s been used already but it doesn’t have the heavy lift capability that the shuttle had, it can’t carry up large modules with 10 to 20 tonnes of hardware to bolt onto the Space Station.”