NEW: Atlantis Landed. Then Nobody Went for Twelve Years

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift · Apr 10, 2026 · 9m

Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down on July 21 2011 and the shuttle program ended with it. By that point the machine was irreplaceable, not because it was precious but because it had been repaired and adapted so many times that every component was one of a kind. The only thing left to do was glide it home with no engines and one shot at the runway.

There is something worth sitting with in the fact that Doug Hurley piloted that final mission and then, six years later, commanded SpaceX Demo 2, the flight that put Americans back into orbit from American soil for the first time since Atlantis…