STS 41-B Post-Flight Presentation

Relive the final space shuttle mission with this slow-motion film footage of Atlantis’ launch from the Kennedy Space Center on July 7, 2011. (Membership Required)

Watch the shuttle Atlantis’ backflip, which occurred five years ago today, before docking to the International Space Station.

When Chris Ferguson climbed into the commander’s seat of the shuttle Atlantis five years ago for the spaceship’s final flight, he didn’t know what turn his career would take when he returned to Earth. Now the former F-14 fighter pilot helps lead Boeing’s development of the CST-100 Starliner space taxi, one of two U.S.-built commercial spacecraft selected by NASA to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.