Space shuttle Atlantis touches down, ending an era of adventure in space

Thursday, July 21, 2011 - 12:30 in Astronomy & Space

Nasa employees weep at Kennedy Space Centre as half a century of American dominance in space comes to a closeShe roared into the heavens a fortnight ago atop a column of fire, enthralling a million spectators as she set off on her final voyage. But the space shuttle Atlantis slipped quietly back to port on Thursday at the end of her five-million-mile journey, gently lowering the curtain on three extraordinary decades of adventure in human space flight.Nasa's space shuttle era officially came to a close at 5.57am (10.57am BST) when the orbiter and its crew of four astronauts touched down at a remote runway in the northern reaches of Florida's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, watched by a few hundred space agency workers and reporters who turned out before dawn to witness a moment of history.Like a ship's bell ringing a vessel safely back home, two deafening sonic booms pierced...

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