The flying government deathtrap era is over!

From Roto-Reuters via Yahoo! News:

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Atlantis lands safely, ending shuttle era

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The space shuttle Atlantis glided home through a clear moonlit sky on Thursday to complete a 13-day cargo run to the International Space Station and a 30-year odyssey for NASA's shuttle program.

Commander Chris Ferguson gently steered the 100-tonne spaceship high overhead, then nose-dived toward the swamp-surrounded landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center, a few miles (kilometers) from where Atlantis will go on display as a museum piece.

Double sonic booms shattered the predawn silence around the space center, the last time residents will hear the distinctive sound of a shuttle coming home.

Ferguson eased Atlantis onto the runway at 5:57 a.m. EDT, ending a 5.2 million-mile (8.4 million-km) journey and closing a key chapter in human space flight history.

"Mission complete, Houston," Ferguson radioed to Mission Control.

Astronaut Barry Wilmore from Mission Control answered back, "We'll take this opportunity to congratulate you Atlantis, as well as the thousands of passionate individuals across this great space-faring nation who truly empowered this incredible spacecraft, which for three decades has inspired millions around the globe."

Atlantis' return from the 135th shuttle mission capped a 30-year program that made spaceflight appear routine, despite two fatal accidents that killed 14 astronauts and destroyed two of NASA's five spaceships.

The last accident investigation board recommended the shuttles be retired after construction was finished on the space station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations. That milestone was reached this year, leaving the orbiting research station as the shuttle program's crowning legacy.

Details of a follow-on program are still pending, but the objective is to build new spaceships that can travel beyond the station's 250-mile (400-km) orbit and send astronauts to the moon, asteroids and other destinations in deep space.

The final shuttle crew included just four astronauts -- Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, flight engineer Rex Walheim and mission specialist Sandy Magnus -- rather than the typical six or seven astronauts, a precaution in case Atlantis was too damaged to safely attempt the return to Earth. With no more shuttles available for a rescue, NASA's backup plan was to rely on the smaller Russian Soyuz capsules.