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NASA's space shuttles have racked up an amazing set of accomplishments over the last 30 years, not to mention the miles and statistics. But after three decades and 135 flights, the era of the NASA space shuttle is at an end. The final shuttle flight, NASA's STS-135 mission aboard Atlantis , will land Thursday (July 21) to cap a 13-day trip that delivered supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station

When space shuttle Atlantis rolls to a stop at the end of its current mission, the only remaining U.S. spacecraft capable of taking astronauts to orbit will be powered down for good. NASA's fleet of space shuttles, developed in the 1970s and first launched in 1981, have provided the nation with 30 years of almost uninterrupted access to space.

The launching and landing of space shuttles has always been a fairly coastal affair: The shuttles take off from Florida and almost always touch down in Florida or California. (Once, in 1982, a shuttle landed at New Mexico's White Sands Space Harbor.) NASA is continuing that coastal tradition with the placement of its retired and retiring shuttles , whose final homes were announced April 12. The three shuttles will be displayed in Florida, Los Angeles and Virginia, and a test-flight shuttle that never reached orbit will go to New York City.