Government IT: Space Shuttle Endeavour`s 19-Year History in Pictures

The space shuttle Endeavour completed its final flight June 1—after delivering the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station during the STS-134 mission—bringing NASA one step closer to the ultimate end of the shuttle program. "Your landing adds a vibrant legacy to this vehicle that will long be remembered, astronaut and entry capcom Barry Wilmore told Commander Mark Kelly after wheel stop. "Welcome home, Endeavour. Kelly replied, "It's sad to see her land for the last time, but she leaves a great legacy. Since its first flight in May 1992—a daring satellite recovery, repair and redeploy—Endeavour has flown the first space station assembly flight, made 11 more station flights and one to the Russian space station Mir, flown the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and more. Endeavour was NASA's fifth and final space shuttle orbiter to join the fleet at Kennedy Space Center, and is known inside the space agency by its designation Orbiter Vehicle-105, or OV-105. Construction of Endeavour began Sept. 28, 1987, and it rolled out of the assembly plant in Palmdale, Calif., in April 1991.