OTD in Space – June 1: Endeavour’s Final Touchdown

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On June 1, 2011, NASA's space shuttle Endeavor touched down safely for the final time at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after spending 299 days in space throughout the course of its 25 flights. Endeavour was built as a replacement for the shuttle Challenger, which was lost in the 1986 accident that also killed its seven-astronaut crew. Congress authorized the construction of Endeavour in 1987, and the orbiter first blasted off in 1992. Its final launch occurred on May 16, 2011, sending a six-member crew into orbit on NASA's STS-134 mission. This last mission delivered the Express Logistics Carrier-3 and the $1.1 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. Endeavour had many successful missions during its run, one of the most famous being the start of construction on the ISS. The 1998 mission took the U.S. Unity node, or the passageway that connects the working and living modules, to space and joined it to the Russian Zarya module, which was already in orbit. This attachment led to it becoming an international space station. Currently, Endeavour sits in the California Science Center in Los Angeles as a year-round exhibit.