Final Shuttle Mission Lifts Off

Concerns with the weather didn't derail mission STS-135, with the shuttle Atlantis blasting off for one last time.

The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 11:30 this morning to begin STS-135, NASA's final shuttle mission. The Atlantis ascended for eight-and-a-half minutes through Earth's atmosphere, flying at speeds surpassing four miles a second en route to the International Space Station, where it will resupply the orbiting research centre with a bunch of cool-sounding science-y things that you can read about at much greater depth here. Atlantis is slated to head back to Earth on July 20, wrapping up NASA's 166th, and, for the time being, final, manned space flight.