Space Shuttle Atlantis Starts Final Voyage

(Image credit: NASA)

Shuttle Atlantis is making its final planned move from the Orbiter Processing Facility-1 to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for fitting of its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters.. The move is called the "rollover" and marks the start of  the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station, planned for July.

This will be the final flight for Atlantis and the last ever shuttle mission. Atlantis was the fourth shuttle built and was completed in half the time spent on Columbia through the use of large thermal protection blanket, rather than individual tiles. Atlantis was delivered to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 9, 1985 and has successfully completed 33 missions in space.