STS-135 video: Resupply pod hoisted from Atlantis’ bay

This narrated footage shows the preparations that shuttle Atlantis and the mission payloads underwent at Kennedy Space Center for launch on STS-135 to the International Space Station.

VIDEO: The winged spaceship Columbia returned to Earth with a pinpoint landing at Edwards Air Force Base on this day 35 years ago, concluding the maiden flight of the space shuttle.

A series of unprecedented back-to-back test-firings of a rocket engine originally developed for NASA’s space shuttle concluded earlier this month, giving engineers data crucial to achieving rapid 24-hour turnarounds planned for a U.S. military-funded reusable winged booster under construction at Boeing, government and industry officials said.