End of Shuttle: 5 Photos for 5th Anniversary

Five years ago today, on July 8, 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis launched to space from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. No shuttle has launched since, and Atlantis and the other orbiters are now artifacts in museums telling the story of where we’ve been and who we are. Here, in another of our “5 Things” posts, we share five photos from that last-ever shuttle launch five years ago.

For more about where the four orbiters are and how they got there, see our new article at The Atlantic. For more posts here about the last launch, see the series “Last Chance to See.”