Space Shuttle | featured news

NBC News’ Jay Barbree narrates a rare time-lapse video of the shuttle Atlantis being prepared for its final mission.

At $196 billion, the amount of money taxpayers spent during the lifetime of the space shuttle program seems astronomical.

When the United States embarked on its shuttle program decades ago, it set out to build a workhorse vehicle that would make space travel routine and beat the Soviets during the Cold War struggle for dominance in space.

In the final move of its kind, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis was photographed earlier this month slowly advancing toward Launch Pad 39A, where it is currently scheduled for a July launch to the International Space Station. The mission, designated STS-135, is the 135th and last mission for a NASA space shuttle. Atlantis and its four-person crew will be carrying, among other things, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello to bring key components and supplies to the ISS.

NASA does all kinds of stuff. They build space robots. They send up satellites. They study the oceans. But come on - who're we kidding? When most people think of NASA, they think of manned space flight. The space shuttle. But after 30 years, and 135 flights, NASA has decided to close down the space shuttle program.

Two astronauts made history Friday as the final spacewalkers of NASA's 30-year shuttle program.

NASA awaiting images after Soyuz capsule landing.

Space shuttle commander Mark Kelly said Thursday he's still awaiting doctors' blessing to bring his wounded congresswoman wife to his launch in just under three weeks.

The last chapter in the story of the space shuttle Discovery likely closes Wednesday with its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Discovery, the world's most traveled spaceship, left the International Space Station on Monday for the last time, getting a dramatic send-off by the dozen orbiting astronauts as well as "Star Trek's" original Capt. Kirk.