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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

Heres a look at the top four contenders for developing the next spacecraft, how much funding they have received through the program, and how close they are to sending a crewed flight into orbit. After the shuttle Atlantis makes its final flight this summer, NASA will shut down the program responsible for 135 manned space flights since 1981. Now, NASA is turning to commercial companies to develop space-flight capabilities through its Commercial Crew Development program, which has doled out $320 million in funds since 2009.

Last week, astronauts on the International Space Station had an unwelcome visitor.

NASA will send its final space shuttle into orbit this summer, when Atlantis lifts off from Kennedy Space Center for a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. The mission will garner much attention for what it represents -- the 135th and final flight of NASA's 30-year space shuttle program. But also important is the work that the four-member crew will be doing to ready the International Space Station for the post-shuttle-program era.

NASA will send its final space shuttle into orbit this summer, when Atlantis lifts off from Kennedy Space Center for a 12-day mission to the International Space Station.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The AMS particle detector will take off on 29 April 2011 at 21.47 CEST onboard the very last mission of the space Shuttle Endeavour.

(PhysOrg.com) -- What do a wine glass on Earth and an International Space Station experiment have in common? Well, observing the wine glass would be one of few ways to see and understand the experiment being performed in space.