NASA’s space shuttle, Atlantis has made a successful touchdown at the space port in Florida after completing its mission of delivering a cargo to the international space station and the mission duration was 11 days. The Atlantis flight has been especially of great significance as it was deemed as the final space shuttle flight from NASA, before the retirement of the shuttle program.

The space shuttle Atlantis touched down at the 3-mile concrete runway at 9:44 a.m. EST and successfully finished the fifth flight of the year for NASA. Furthermore, Atlantis’s return has also been recorded as the 129th successful mission in the history of NASA’s space shuttle program. The International Space Station that is still under construction requires five more shuttle mission and will cost around $100 billion for the completion of the station. There are 16 countries involved in the realization of this mammoth dream that is stated to orbit above earth at a range of 220 miles.

The space shuttle has long been marred by safety concerns and the increasing costs of maintenance and operations. To ensure its continued operations in space, NASA is currently running on capsule-type spaceships. These new space vessels are expected to provide space travel capabilities to the astronauts, not only to the ISS or the moon, but also beyond the reaches of these two frontiers. However, these machines aren’t going to be ready for operations before the year 2015.

Via Reuters.