July 8th - on this day in 2011, the final launch of the Space Shuttle program took place when Atlantis lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station. The final Space Shuttle crew included only four astronauts: Commander Christopher Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. On this last mission the Space Shuttle carried 12,890 kg of payload mass to the orbital outpost. | NASAS

VIDEO: The astronauts' perspective of landing the space shuttle Atlantis as recorded on #STS81 that began on this day in 1997 | Spaceflight Now