Atlantis lands, NASA's shuttle program ends

Updated at 12:19 p.m. ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Atlantis and four astronauts returned from the International Space Station in triumph Thursday, bringing an end to NASA's 30-year shuttle journey with one last, rousing touchdown that drew cheers and tears.

"We each got choked up at different times," crew member Rex Walheim told reporters at a post-landing press conference. "There were times that you would take in the big picture, and it would get to you."

Coming home to a future clouded by tight budgets and uncertain political support, commander Christopher Ferguson guided Atlantis through a sweeping left overhead turn and lined up on runway 15, quickly descending into the glare of powerful xenon spotlights, CBS News space analyst William Harwood reports.

CBS Space Place: Latest on the shuttle mission

Approaching the 3-mile-long runway, Ferguson pulled the shuttle's nose up in a graceful flare, co-pilot Douglas Hurley lowered the ship's landing gear and Atlantis settled to a tire-smoking touchdown at 5:57 a.m. Eastern time. A few seconds later, as Atlantis barreled down the runway at more than 200 miles per hour, Hurley deployed a red-and-white braking parachute and the shuttle's nose gear settled to the runway.

"Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, it's place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time, its voyage at an end," said mission control commentator Rob Navias.

Thousands gathered near the landing strip and packed Kennedy Space Center, and countless others watched from afar, as NASA's longest-running spaceflight program came to a close.

"After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle's earned its place in history. And it's come to a final stop," Ferguson radioed after a ghostlike Atlantis glided through the twilight.

"Job well done, America," replied Mission Control.

58 Photos

NASA's final shuttle flight

Harwood has covered the space program for CBS News for 20 years.

"It's almost like a funeral," Harwood told CBS News correspondent Rebecca Jarvis from Kennedy Space Center on CBS' "The Early Show." "I hate to put it that way, but it's almost like the loss of a good friend for all the thousands of people that have worked on the space shuttle over the last three decades. Seeing it come down to this landing and close out the program is truly a bittersweet moment."

With the shuttle's end, it will be another three to five years at best before Americans are launched again from U.S. soil, with private companies gearing up to seize the Earth-to-orbit-and-back baton from NASA.

Until then, NASA astronauts will continue to hitch rides to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft — for around $60 million per seat, Harwood reports.

"That's something that simply doesn't sit very well among the men and women who care and feed the shuttle over all of these years," Harwood told Jarvis. "There's some real disappointment about that more than the fact that the shuttle itself is over."

The long-term future for American space exploration is just as hazy, a huge concern for many at NASA and all those losing their jobs because of the shuttle's end. Asteroids and Mars are the destinations of choice, yet NASA has yet to settle on a rocket design to get astronauts there.

Video: Atlantis crew set to return to Earth
U.S. shuttle leaves space station for last time
Space program "super fan" faces mixed emotions

Thursday, though, belonged to Atlantis and its crew: Ferguson, Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus, who completed a successful space station resupply mission.

"The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it's changed the way we view our universe," Ferguson radioed from Atlantis. "There's a lot of emotion today, but one thing's indisputable. America's not going to stop exploring.

"Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour, and our ship Atlantis, thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such a fitting end."

21 Photos

The storied career of Atlantis

For the landing, there wasn't nearly the hoopla that surrounded Atlantis' launch on July 8 — when an estimated 1 million packed the Cape Canaveral area — because of the hour and lack of spectacle. The darkness robbed virtually all views of the approaching shuttle, and made it more of a NASA family affair.

Atlantis was greeted with cheers, whistles and shouts from the record 2,000 who had gathered near the runway — astronauts' families and friends, as well as shuttle managers and NASA brass. Soon, the sun was up and provided a splendid view. Within an hour, Ferguson and his crew were out on the runway and swarmed by well-wishers.

"The things that we've done have set us up for exploration of the future," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., a former shuttle commander. "But I don't want to talk about that right now. I just want to salute this crew, welcome them home."

Nine-hundred miles away, flight director Tony Ceccacci, who presided over Atlantis' safe return, choked up while signing off from shuttle Mission Control in Houston.

"The work done in this room, in this building, will never again be duplicated," he told his team of flight controllers.

At those words, dozens of past and present flight controllers quickly streamed into the room, embracing one another and snapping pictures while keeping their tears, if not their emotions, in check.

But on the landing strip in Florida, flight director Mike Leinbach said the tears flowed. He himself was awash with emotion as he took in "the beauty of the vehicle," snapped pictures and posed for pictures at workers' requests, some of whom face layoffs.

"I saw grown men and grown women crying today — tears of joy to be sure," Leinbach told reporters. "Human emotions came out on the runway today, and you couldn't suppress them."

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[roscoeed7]

Ask them what brand of auto they drive? Most of these engineer types drive foreign cars but they want us to bail them out. This was a poorly reported story that had a lot of boo hoo but little in the ways to increase industry and rehire these foreign driving auto engineers!

[fragilehabitat]

We are abandoning our exploration of space to fund two needless invasions of Iraq and Iran.
For those of you that say it should be commercial, what happens when a commercial craft finds a cure for cancer on a distant planet. Do you think they would let you have it for cheap, or should it be property of mankind? Fire everyone in office good or bad till it fixes itself.

[enlightenu]

Far fetched, but why couldn't your argument be applied now? All pharmaceutical companies are commercial entities and many find exotic compounds for use in medicine in far off rain forests that belong to other countries. Are they the property of mankind?

[Anotheryahoo]

We are not hearing 1 word in this from the Republican flag waivers who just spent 4 trillion in Iraq the very same Iraq that had no weapons of mass destruction? What did we get for that 4 trillion? 4 trillion down the drain. Another Vietnam. Bush repeated everything we did in the 60's got us into a needless wars,killed the space program. He never funded Constellation. Space exploration and science are social programs and I love Nasa. Backward looking republicans arent going to take us anywhere folks.

At least Obama has the space program moving forward rather then just a PR stunt like Bush.

Cant wait to hear the Social Security crowd start screaming once they learn the republicans are killing it off. Better think twice before pulling the republican lever. Bush Jr was the absolute worst vote I ever casted. He fooled me once. Republicans are for the rich elites and thats about it.

[Harden_Tar]

You all realize that the U.S. is effectively still funding a low earth space program. Except it is in Russia. The Ruskies would not be flying if we were not paying to ride in their POS space balls. Essentially, jobs have been outsourced.

[venusvegasvada]

Ok, bring out the new shuttles!

Three times as big. Able to lift heavy loads to high earth orbit.

????

[p94932]

what a freaking joke NASA is, there is no reason the shuttle program should be canned. In fact we should a new fleet under construction and modernized with now materials etc. Stupid bonehead bureaucrats.

[enlightenu]

yay more money down the drain. Leave low earth orbit for commercial development. NASA should focus on deep space.

[daffy64]

what a freaking joke NASA is, there is no reason the shuttle program should be canned.

-

Other than it being an overpriced, over-complex, and dangerous flop?

[cbsnacilbuper]

On Friday, 1,500 shuttle workers are scheduled to get their pink slips. By the time all the layoff notices are handed out, a total of 8,000 workers

[daffy64]

It's very disappointing that the next generation of manned launch vehicles isn't ready to take over immediately. But you must remember that after Apollo, the USA pulled the same mistake.

There was a six year gap between the last Saturn 1B launch and the first launch of the Shuttle in which the USA had no manned capability. It's not just "Obama's fault" since the shuttle's supposed replacement, the CEV wouldn't have been ready by now anyways.

Yes, it's politics and unclear goals that keep vehicles from being developed. But it's hardly due to Republicans OR Democrats.

Remember that it was Nixon who canceled the last three Apollo missions and the Mars "NERVA" program (because the "important" Vietnam war had bankrupted America).

History all over again.

[cbsnacilbuper]

Ms_enema, why are we in Libya?

[daffy64]

by EmpireGeorge-_ July 21, 2011 12:09 PM EDT
daffy64, we'll just rely on Canada's robust space program, eh ?

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Actually, the Remote Manipulator System (Canadarm) was one of the only parts of the shuttle that operated flawlessly!

Oh well. If only we had your GDP, think what we could do, haha.

[stuwerb]

Little known fact about the shuttle program -- usually when it landed in North Florida, it would always land at the same KFC. Great work, everyone. Next bucket's on me.

[enlightenu]

I am glad the shuttle is finally retired. It was always too expensive to operate and the high costs compromised many other missions that could have added to our breadth of knowledge. We put all our eggs in one basket with the shuttle, which is not scalable per mission. Even the military backed out of it for routine missions to put small payloads in orbit. We should have stuck with the Saturn program, which was scalable and moon capable. We should have expanded upon Skylab, instead of ISS, the most costly object ever constructed. We would have been way ahead in space flight if we simply evolved our earlier programs at a less costly rate and got a return on the initial development costs rather than switch to the overly complex shuttle with it's limited capabilities.

Also I don't understand the negative comments about losing our space capabilities. No astronaut flew for 6 years after Skylab, while the shuttle was in development. No one said the space program was dead during that time, although a few said the shuttle would kill it.

[daffy64]

RIGHT ON.

[daffy64]

Saturn V was a fantastic launch vehicle. It's a shame that the last three ended up discarded like so much scrap. There was even plans to add two "strap on" boosters to increase the payload to a point where a moon base/manned Mars mission was possible.

Technology just wasn't far enough along to make the idea of a reusable vehicle like the shuttle practical. Plus, Nasa didn't have the amount of money it requested to design it, leading to a compromised design with solid rocket boosters and a non-reusable fuel tank that made it no lower in cost than disposable rockets.

Oh well.