STS-135 video: Narrated flow tapes

Former Johnson Space Center Director Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr., the man who created the iconic role of NASA flight director during the Mercury and Gemini programs and whose no-nonsense, uncompromising management style defined control room operations and discipline through the Apollo years and beyond, died Monday. He was 95.

Five years ago today — July 8, 2011 — Atlantis launched on the final space shuttle mission after 31 years as the centerpiece of America’s human spaceflight endeavors.

Workers removed the protective wrap that has cocooned space shuttle Atlantis while its $100 million new home was built around it at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.