shuttle's

NASA Test Director Mike Ciannilli choked up the second he saw the shuttle's tires touch the 3-mile-long runway.

NASA shifts focus as Atlantis landing ends shuttle era 2011

Then they packed up almost three tons of station waste and discarded equipment for the shuttle's last journey back to Earth.

Touchdown Brings Shuttle Era to a Close Arian Campo-Flores 2011

Endeavour docked with the orbiting laboratory Wednesday as part of the shuttle's final space journey and next-to-last mission of U.S. space agency NASA's shuttle program.

Endeavour Astronauts Begin Work on International Space Station 2011

Meanwhile, Gerstenmaier said, Americans should look to the International Space Station, the space shuttle's most ambitious legacy, for inspiration.

NASA shifts focus as Atlantis landing ends shuttle era 2011

Numbers Guy Blog Accounting for Astronomical Figures Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, first estimated the shuttle's cost to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the early 1990s.

As Shuttle Sails Through Space, Costs Are Tough to Pin Down Carl Bialik 2011

Endeavour docked with the orbiting laboratory Wednesday as part of the shuttle's final space journey and next-to-last mission of U.S. space agency NASA's shuttle program.

Endeavour Astronauts Begin Work on International Space Station 2011

It was those flights of the mid-1980s that proved the shuttle could reach and capture a satellite already in orbit, that large solar arrays could provide enough power to keep a station crew alive and be successfully expanded and retracted, that astronauts could do the kind of high-precision spacewalks and careful work with the shuttle's robotic arm needed to assemble the station.

Zoe P. Strassfield: Flying for Me Zoe P. Strassfield 2012

Reliance on such engines, related hardware and often cost-plus contracts stretching back to the shuttle's heyday are major reasons for the new booster's anticipated hefty price tag, according to Jeff Greason , a leader of the Commercial Space Flight Federation, a trade group that represents backers of commercial-space projects.

White House Experiences Sticker Shock Over NASA's Plans Andy Pasztor 2011

Kelly is commanding a crew of five others on Endeavour, the shuttle's last trip to space and the second-to-last planned flight of the shuttle program.

Mark Kelly sends first e-mail from space 2011

The legislative tug-of-war over NASA's direction—and how much its current $18.7 billion budget will shrink—is bound to continue well past the shuttle's return.

NASA's Post-Shuttle Space-Exploration Plans Generate Little Excitement Andy Pasztor 2011