OK, we're going to pause the story tracker for now. Live coverage will continue now on our shuttle live blog. Let's hope it goes up today!

The BBC's John Amos has tweeted this:

So, the weather has gone "green". There's more cloud coming but with an hour until launch, we're currently good to go.

Looks like it might actually happen!

Video from Nasa earlier showing Atlantis being rolled out to the launch pad

Latest from the Nasa live blog:

One hour away from the planned 11:26 a.m. liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis, weather remains the big question mark. The launch team is not working on any technical issues. The T-9 minute hold begins shortly.

From Nasa:

Before leaving the White Room for what may be the final time, each member of the Closeout Crew held up signs bearing the following message: "On behalf of all who have designed and built, serviced and loaded, launched and controlled, operated and flown these magnificent space vehicles... Thank you for 30 years with our nation's space shuttles! Godspeed Atlantis! God bless America!"

This is a thing of beauty. An audio slideshow of Astronauts Piers Sellers and Scott Altman talking about the experience of flying in the shuttle with stunning images. It is jaw-dropping stuff.

The countdown clock has reached T-1 hour, but there are still two built-in holds in the schedule that will bring us to the target launch time of 4.26pm BST. The next hold is at T-20 minutes.

The Guardian's Colin Blackstock, who is making his way to the shuttle launch area in Florida, has just sent this update on his progress:

Although the forecasters are predicting only a 30% chance of suitable weather for a launch decided to take those odds and left Orlando this morning around 8am. That's despite speculation that upwards of 750,000 are going to be heading for the space coast and warnings that traffic could be gridlocked most of the 50 mile or so journey. After about 20 miles the main road to the east coast, the beachline express, is still reasonably clear, although they appear to have closed the toll booths to keep traffic running smoothly. Decided to head for Cocoa Beach, south of CC launch site, to try to watch the launch as it sounded like Titusville where views are better was going

to be too busy, with roads in that area gridlocked from around 7am. Heading east the cloud cover looks like it might be beginning to break up so fingers crossed that it continues to clear.



Richard Luscombe, who is covering the launch for us, is at Jetty Park, Cape Canaveral, just north of Cocoa Beach. He's been talking to the mayor of Titusville:



Jim Tulley blagged himself one of the best vantage points for the launch, and it has nothing to do with the fact that he wrote computer software for the space shuttle programme for more than a quarter of a century.

The former Kennedy Space Centre employee is mingling with the crowds at the aptly named Space View Park in Titusville, which has a direct and unobstructed across the Indian River to the waterfront.

Tulley has been mayor of the town for almost three years and says he wouldn't want to be anywhere else for such an historic moment. The park has a trail of astronaut memorials, including handprints of the 1960s Mercury programme pioneers, and a live commentary from launch control is being broadcast over loudspeakers.

"It's a bitter-sweet moment for everyone here," says Tulley, who was walking anxiously around the site this morning making sure there were enough Porta-Potties for the assembled thousands.

"Launches are breathtaking but to actually be part of it, to be the technician who has his hands on the vehicle, the tech that helps the astronauts get on board or someone like myself who wrote the software to keep the project moving forward, we'd love to have had shuttle flights continue.

"But the day will come for most of us when we will look back at what we've accomplished with a great deal of pride. Once Atlantis returns and they put it on display at the Kennedy Space Centre, there'll be lots of people who take their grandchildren to that display and say, 'See that, I worked on that, we built that, we launched it, we helped build the International Space Station'."

The Atlantis crew have taken their seats aboard the space shuttle. For this last mission, only four astronauts are involved, instead of the usual six or seven. That's because there is no shuttle on standby to rescue the Atlantis crew should it suffer damage during launch.

If Atlantis cannot be flown home at the end of this mission, the astronauts will hunker down on the International Space Station – for up to a year – and come home one by one on Russian Soyuz capsules.

Commander Chris Ferguson was first aboard. He sits on the lefthand side at the front of the shuttle. On his right is the pilot, Doug Hurley. Behind and to the right of Hurley is mission specialist Sandy Magnus. And last in was mission specialist Rex Walheim. He's sat in the centre of the flight deck's second row, behind the commander and pilot.

Walheim gave this parting comment on boarding:



The Space Shuttle Program has been amazing, what it's done, all the great accomplishments, and you just don't want to let that momentum down, and so there is a lot of pressure to do your job right and to, and like I say, to finish strong.

The latest from Alok Jha, our man on the ground:

@alokjha Unofficial statement from @nasa suggests #sts135 is 50% on.

The Atlantis crew has arrived at the launchpad. A few photographs and they'll head into the lift up to the 195 foot level. Then it's into the White Room until they are ready to clamber aboard.

The countdown allows up to 50 minutes for the astronauts to climb aboard and get strapped in. Since there are only four astronauts on this final space shuttle crew, all four are riding to and from orbit on Atlantis' flight deck, with no one on the middeck below.

Atlantis launch director, Mike Leinbach, has told his team: "We have a shot at this today." There is no change with the weather forecast though - still only a 30% chance conditions will be favourable for a launch.

From the Nasa live launch blog:

Supporters have lined the hallways and gathered outside the door downstairs, and the astronauts are met with cheers as they wave to the crowd and board the van. The crew is accompanied to the pad by a suit technician who will join the Closeout Crew.

The Atlantis crew is walking out. From here, they'll hop on a bus and drive slowly over to the launchpad, get in the lift and head up to the gantry, where they wait in turn to enter the shuttle.

Here's how shuttle veteran Piers Sellers described this part of launch day to me last week:

The van, in a little convoy, trundles out the few miles to the pad. It is a morale boost because you go past all the shuttle engineers and techs all waving on the way. But there are fewer and fewer people as you get out to the pad and by the time you get out there there are just the actual pad rats, the crews that work the vehicle. Up the elevator, up to the 195 foot level and now it's just you and a few people in white suits who are there to load you in. You stand around on the platform waiting. And there are two things to do while you are waiting. One is there's a handset phone there so you can phone people if you are one of the last people to be loaded onboard and two, there is an old prison toilet nailed to a piece of plywood up on that level, so you can go and use that, which is probably a good idea.

Meanwhile Nasa tweets:

Clocks in the Kennedy Space Center Launch Control Center have resumed counting from T-3 hours.

A built-in hold in the countdown for the shuttle launch is due to end shortly. The countdown should resume at 7:31 am Florida time / 12.31pm BST.

The latest from the Nasa live launch blog at Kennedy Space Centre:

After a meal, a photo op, a weather briefing and a medical check, the astronauts have made it to the suit-up room to climb into their Advanced Crew Escape Suits, or ACES. These suits provide air, pressure and pockets for survival tools and other items. The bulky, orange suits are not easy to put on, so the astronauts are helped by suit technicians from the astronauts' home base at Johnson Space Center. The suit-up room carries a rich history; every space shuttle crew and Apollo astronaut dressed for launch here.

This morning's countdown to liftoff of shuttle Atlantis continues to go smoothly, with weather still the only concern. The forecast remains 30 percent "go" with a chance for showers and thunderstorms within 20 nautical miles of the Shuttle Landing Facility, flight through precipitation and cumulus clouds.

More from the Nasa live launch blog here.

@NASA: Shuttle Atlantis astronauts are donning orange launch & entry suits and will depart crew quarters at 7:36am EDT for launch pad 39A

The latest update has just come in from Alok Jha at Cape Canaveral:

Nasa engineers have filled the external tanks of space shuttle Atlantis with more than 535,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the past few hours, in preparation for launch on Friday morning. The chances of launch are still low, around 30%, due to adverse weather conditions that are expected to come into Cape Canaveral in the next few hours. Filling the shuttle's famous 45m-long orange external tank with fuel, a procedure called tanking, started at 2am (EDT) and took just under 3 hours, finishing ahead of schedule at 4:48am (EDT). The pressurised liquid hydrogen is kept in the tank at -253C, and the liquid oxygen at -183C until they meet and burn in the orbiter's main engines. There are no technical impediments for the scheduled launch at 11:26am (EDT) but Nasa officials are monitoring weather carefully. So far this morning, the four astronauts that who will fly on the last ever shuttle mission, designated STS-135 and intended to take supplies to the International Space Station, have now eaten breakfast and completed final medical examinations. A short time after 6am (EDT), they will make their way to the launch pad, to be strapped into the Atlantis orbiter.

Full news story to follow.

Alok Jha on his way to Kennedy Space Centre says that the launch team for STS-135 have begun filling the main fuel tanks of Atlantis. That doesn't mean the launch is definitely going ahead though. Because of bad weather and the risk of lightning strikes there is still only a 30% chance that the final shuttle flight will go up today. The flight could still be called off right up to 9 minutes before the scheduled launch time of 11.26 EDT. Here's Alok's full story on the launch delay.

This is the CBS take from this morning on the decision to refuel and the "dismal forecast".

Friday

_



Update from Alok Jha at Cape Canaveral:

Nasa has announced that it is investigating the effects of a possible lightning strike which occurred a third of a mile from the launch pad. Engineers will review data, the agency said in a statement, and inspect the rotating service structure, which provides access to the orbiter on the launchpad and has to be rolled back before launch. It is not yet clear whether this will impact the launch time.

.



Richard Luscombe has written this piece on the economic meltdown faced by the Forida "space coast".

As landlord of the nearest pub to the Kennedy Space Centre, Bill Grillo is proud of his highbrow crowd of regulars. For three decades, astronauts, rocket scientists, engineers, technicians and mission managers have kept the till at Shuttles sports bar and grill ringing. Every American who has blasted into space from a nearby launchpad has taken a meal there, and had his or her framed picture placed prominently on a wall. But all that will change this month when the time bell rings for Nasa's iconic space shuttle programme.

Also in the Guardian tomorrow:

• Space shuttle retirement leaves 'yawning gap' in human spaceflight

• Soyuz lacks shuttle's ability to repair space station, warn space experts

Latest update from a drenched Alok Jha at Cape Canaveral:

Tropical downpours and thunderstorms around Cape Canaveral in Florida are reducing the likelihood of Nasa's final space shuttle launching on schedule on Friday. Mission STS-135 is due to launch at 11:26am (EDT), bound for the International Space Station. But meteorologists at Nasa have warned that storm fronts will continue to hit the launchpad throughout the weekend. At a briefing on Thursday, as lightning hit the launch pad, the shuttle launch weather officer Kathy Winters said that there was a 30% chance of favourable weather for the scheduled launch time. Winters told Spaceflight Now that the weather "is not looking good for launch. As you can see outside, the clouds have rolled in, we're starting to see some showers, we even had a thunderstorm show up this morning along Cocoa Beach. We are expecting more of this the next couple of days." If Atlantis misses its launch window on Friday, there are additional opportunities to launch on Saturday and Sunday mornings, when the chances for favourable weather increase to around 40% and 60% respectively. If the delay continues after that, the next window for launch is likely to be on July 16th. A launch opportunity could also be opened up between July 8th to 10th if Nasa officials can negotiate a delay in the planned Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral next week. This rocket is scheduled to launch a GPS satellite.



The Washington Post has put together a spectacular collection of shuttle images taken by photographer Philip Scott Andrews.

Andrews writes:

We have spent the past three years securing access and photographing scenes few people have ever witnessed. It has been quite a bit of work, but I have felt humbled and privileged every minute...



In the simplest terms, these photographs tell a story of the work of men and women who showed up every day and launched spaceships. By doing their jobs well, these workers — from much-hailed astronauts to Harley-riding technicians — have made the extraordinary task of spaceflight seem mundane.

Elsewhere:

Nasa will base its new crew module - for missions beyond low Earth orbit - on the Orion capsule that was developed for the now defunct Constellation programme. They have footage of the spacecraft, along with film inside a mock-up of the shuttle - over at Sky News.

If you're in the right part of the world at the right time, you can see the shuttle in orbit.

National Geographic points out this is the last opportunity to see the orbiting shuttle with naked eyes, and gives some tips on how to spot Atlantis.

Will the shuttle fly over your location?

The prospects for a final shuttle flight on Friday look rather bleak as storms gather over the space coast. The AP press agency is reporting a senior manager as saying NASA will try for an on-time launch of Atlantis despite a 70 percent chance bad weather would stop the liftoff. Launch time is scheduled for 11:26 a.m. Flordida time (BST-5 hours).



More here, including weather maps, from the Washington Post.

Meanwhile:

Channel 4 News in the UK has put together a fascinating retrospective on the shuttle programme.

I couldn't help but find these comments arresting, from Dr Jonathan Clark, a Nasa surgeon who lost his wife Laurel when she was killed in the Columbia disaster.

"It cost my wife's life and my son no longer had a mother, and for me it was a truly personal cost. But despite the loss that we felt personally, both my son and I feel that the loss was worth it," Dr Clark said.

"Think of what the early explorers had to encounter. If they had to turn back every time they lost somebody, just think of what we'd be doing now: we would be a pitiful species if we didn't expand beyond our horizons."



See the full package here.

Good morning. Ian Sample, the Guardian's science correspondent, interviewed shuttle astronauts Piers Sellers and Scott Altman for the cover feature of today's G2 section. Each describes in detail what it's like to ride the shuttle into space and back. Here's a flavour.

Sellers on take-off:

You see the power come up on the indicators in the cockpit, you see the thrust go up from zero to 100% on three engines and then you feel the whole stack sway forwards towards your feet, and that is because the thrust of the engines is so great that it bends the shuttle and stack on its hold-down bolts, and pushes it to one side. They call that the twang. The twang goes all the way, about 4ft, and then the whole stack bounces back. And at exactly the right moment, zero, the solid rocket boosters light and the hold-down bolts explode and off you go. It feels as if someone lit a bomb underneath your back.

Altman:

The vehicle is shaking incredibly. You can get to switches – you have to take your time and focus on what you're doing and make sure you get to the right switch.

Sellers on reaching orbit:

We have a plan to get us through the first day in orbit. You get out of your suit, hang it up, then convert the shuttle from being a rocket into being a spacecraft. You're putting out computers, moving bags around, stuff like that, and that takes longer than you'd think, about four or five hours.

Sellers on re-entry:

You don't see much to start with, but after a while you get this beautiful cherry-red glow all round the shuttle and you can see it snapping over the tail. It kind of pulses, but over the forward cockpit windows it's just a beautiful cherry red that you can see through. In daylight you can see through this red haze and see the world.

Altman on the Columbia, which was destroyed on entry in 2003:

Six of the seven astronauts on Columbia were very close friends of mine. Three were my classmates, the other three were in the class right after me. Dave Brown had been my flight surgeon in the navy. It was a shock to me to realise that basically we did almost the same thing again, in that we missed the warning signs: foam falling off the vehicle was a threat and we hadn't learned from that mistake.

Thursday

_

There is now a 70% chance that bad weather will delay the launch on Friday, Nasa told a press conference this afternoon.

Among panellists answering questions were Mike Moses, launch integration manager, and weather officer Kathy Winters.

"The vehicle is in fantastic shape," said Moses, but went on, "Before we go load the propellants into the tank we'll take a look at the weather and make sure it's really a good day to try that, and so at that point we'll be making a decision."

"We have a tropical wave that's out in the Caribbean," explained Winters. "That wave is actually going to come into Florida along with a lot of tropical moisture that's down to the south, and it's all going to roll into Florida in the next couple of days."

Winters gave an 80% chance of bad weather disrupting "tanking operations", and a 70% chance it would prevent launch on Friday.

NASASpaceFlight.com provides a useful rundown of launch windows available for Atlantis should weather or anything else delay the flight. The first window is 11.21–11.31 EDT (16.21-16.31 BST) to rendezvous with the International Space Station on day three of the mission, with an option to extend to 11.35 EDT to rendezvous on day four. There will be further opportunities on Saturday and Sunday. The next is not until the following Saturday.

Launch opportunities exist from July 8 to July 10, prior to the current plan to standdown for the Delta IV GPS launch, as the range undergoes reconfiguration for the Cape Canaveral launch, resulting in a constraint which stretches from July 11 to July 15. The next earliest launch opportunity is 16 July, per the current plan, which can be – if required – negotiated with the the United Launch Alliance (ULA) to potentially juggle the range priority back to Atlantis.

The same website has an excellent piece summing up Atlantis's career. It opens rather like a speech at a retirement party:



For Atlantis, the last decade of her career would be marked with many more triumphs as she joined her sisters in the most ambitious project in space to date: construction of the International Space Station. This would mean dodging the order for retirement a whooping two times to become the only Space Shuttle orbiter with three penultimate flights and two "final" flights.

Thanks once again to @Violetta73 who emailed these links to science@guardian.co.uk.

In the comments @Violetta73 recommends a good place to watch launch coverage on Nasa HD-TV: "Click the link for the pop-out version for a bigger screen."

Nasa administrator Charlie Bolden was online for an hour-long web chat on Tuesday answering questions about Nasa's future. The full transcript is now available online, but here's a flavour.



Q: After the last launch. What's next for Nasa? A: Immediately following the successful flight of STS-135, and close-out of the shuttle era, attention will turn to facilitating the success of US commercial spacecraft for cargo and crew transportation to low-Earth orbit. At the same time, Nasa will focus on the design and development of a heavy lift rocket with a multipurpose crew vehicle to enable us to at long last embark on deep-space exploration with humans. Q: Why was the shuttle-like concept of a re-useable spacecraft that could take off and land abandoned in favour of Apollo-era capsules? A: For deep-space exploration, re-entry vehicles require the ability to withstand much greater pressure and temperature than present-day winged vehicles can take. We expect that for low-Earth orbit operations such as transportation to the ISS, at least two of the perspective competitors, Orbital Sciences and Sierra Nevada, have proposed winged vehicles for their designs. Q: Will the astronauts still be Nasa astronauts or will they be employed by a private contractor such as Space X? Seems like the only thing changing is the contractor and the equipment. Is that an accurate assessment administrator Bolden? Thanks! A: As the president has promised, Nasa and the nation will continue our leadership in human spaceflight. In doing so, we will continue to maintain a vibrant and involved astronaut corps headquartered at the Johnson Space Center. We currently have several astronauts in the training pipeline, and at the appropriate time we will open up the process for more. Q: What is meant on the Nasa website when it says that Nasa will be "fostering a commercial industry"? Will projects previously done by Nasa be given by the government to private contractors to carry out? A: As we have always done, Nasa is partnering with the aerospace industry to produce vehicles to provide safe, reliable access to low-Earth orbit for astronauts and cargo. Our role now, compared to the shuttle era, is to be a purchaser of service as opposed to the owner and operator. Q: What do you see as the biggest impact Nasa aeronautics research will have on the future of aviation? A: While it is always difficult to predict the future, we are very hopeful that some of our plans with blended wing body aircraft currently being discussed with industry, academia and other federal agencies will one day revolutionise air travel for passenger, cargo and even military use.

The blog Dearlove on Space – blogging from the Nasa tweetup – tries to rain on the shuttle's parade:

I believe the end of the space shuttle is a good thing, allow me a few words to tell you why. 1. The Space Shuttle has had its day ...

2. The Soyuz is reliable enough ....

3. The private craft look amazing ...

Wednesday

_

That's all for today folks. We hope to provide more frequent updates in the coming days.

Nasa provided a mission update earlier this evening:



After flying to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday, the STS-135 astronauts today are reviewing their flight data file and conducting checks of their launch and entry suits. At Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A, technicians have completed space shuttle Atlantis' aft confidence checks and final preparations of the main propulsion system. Despite storms in the area over the extended weekend, there were no reports of adverse weather or lightning strikes inside the launch pad.

Spaceflight Now is providing live coverage of the mission. Text updates will appear automatically: there's no need to reload the page.

Who better to sum up the story of Nasa's bold adventurers and their spaceship than William Shatner?

BBC news helps to lower expectations in the light of a slightly dodgy weather forecast for Friday.

"I wish I had a better briefing for you," Nasa's shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters told reporters. "Right now we are going with a 60% chance of KSC weather prohibiting launch due to the potential for showers and isolated thunderstorms in the area." Huge crowds are expected on the Space Coast to watch the 1126 local time (1526 GMT) lift-off. The forecast is going to make for some tough decisions on their part. Do they endure the jammed roads and long queues on Friday to get into the best viewing positions, only for the launch to be postponed? Or do they stay away, hoping for a 24-hour delay and much better weather prospects.

The countdown has started! We are T-43 hours (or thereabouts) and counting. Add in some pre-planned "holds" in the countdown over the next few days and that leads to the 11:26am (EDT) liftoff plan for Friday.

There is a live feed of the countdown clock at Spaceflight Now.

The only slight cloud on the horizon for Atlantis is a 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms on Friday, according to Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer.

According to Spaceflight Now, there are no hardware worries being worked as the count starts and "activities planned during the early portion of the countdown for shuttle workers include buttoning up launch pad equipment and removing platforms inside the orbiter's crew module, reviewing flight software stored in Atlantis' mass memory units, loading backup software into the general purpose computers and testing navigation systems. Loading of cryogenic reactants into the orbiter's power-generating fuel cells will occur tomorrow."

Flight engineer Ron Garan is on the International Space Station preparing for the arrival of Atlantis and is tweeting as @Astro_Ron. Thanks to @Violetta73 for providing a link to his fascinating blog, which has posts both from space and during training.

For anyone following all the action on Twitter, Nasa has this list of tweeps attending its launch Tweetup.

Television coverage of shuttle launches rarely does justice to the deafening roar of a shuttle lifting off, even when you're standing 3 miles away at the press viewing site. The delay between the sight of the shuttle rising into the air and the first sound of the engines also comes as a surprise. Fortunately, for those of us who will now never get the chance to watch a shuttle launch live, this video captures the experience pretty well.

Our thanks to @ErrorGorilla for bringing this to our attention.

At 3pm BST (10am EDT) Nasa will give its pre-countdown status briefing. Test director Jeremy Graeber, payload manager Joe Delai, and shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters will update the assembled press on the latest developments. You can watch the briefing live on Nasa TV.

At 6pm BST the countdown will officially start.

Tuesday

_

Nasa provides a brief explanation of the symbolism in the crew patch, which is reproduced at the head of this article:

The STS-135 patch represents the space shuttle Atlantis embarking on its mission to resupply the International Space Station. Atlantis is centered over elements of the NASA emblem depicting how the space shuttle has been at the heart of NASA for the last 30 years. It also pays tribute to the entire NASA and contractor team that made possible all the incredible accomplishments of the space shuttle. Omega, the last letter in the Greek alphabet, recognizes this mission as the last flight of the Space Shuttle Program

Ferguson, Hurley, Magnus and Walheim are the four crew members.

AP has produced a handy interactive feature detailing every space shuttle mission to date, hosted here on msnbc.com

A fascinating Nasa video explains the role of the shuttle's closeout crew in preparing the vehicle and the astronauts for launch.

STS-135 closeout crew lead Travis Thompson opens the film with this modest line:

Closeout crew is not special. There's thousands of people out here that have thousands of jobs. You know, and each one's equally important. The only unique thing about us is we have the last hands-on job before the bird flies.

Read a transcript here.

Nasa reveals that Atlantis will take an iPhone into space:

There is at least one first involved with space shuttle Atlantis' STS-135 mission, a flight notable for its lasts: the crew is taking the first iPhone into space to help with experiments aboard the International Space Station. A Houston company called Odyssey Space Research developed an application for the Apple smartphone that is meant to help the astronauts track their scientific results and perhaps one day aid navigation. The device will be housed inside a small research platform built by NanoRacks. The platform will be placed inside the station. The app, called SpaceLab for iOS, is even available to Earthbound smartphone users to perform the same experiments with the software simulating microgravity. According to the company, the software was designed with the iPhone's unique attributes in mind, such as the gyro, accelerometer, cameras and chip.

Karen James of the HMS Beagle Project and @ErrorGorilla recommend The Atlantic's wonderful photo essay charting the history of the shuttle from the drawing board onwards, which includes an image of Star Trek actors attending the first public appearance of the first shuttle, Enterprise, in Palmdale, California on 17 September 1976.

Our friends at the Daily Telegraph have drawn our attention to their excellent "infographic video history of the Nasa space shuttle".

You can follow each of the crew members on Twitter: Mission specialists Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus, pilot Doug Hurley and commander Chris Ferguson.

At 11.26am (EDT) on Friday, the space shuttle Atlantis will begin its final mission into space. It will be the 135th and last mission of the shuttle programme, known formally in Nasa circles as the Space Transportation System (STS). The first mission was launched in April 1981 and, just over 30 years later, the bright dream of having a reusable spacecraft to ferry people and goods into space and back will finally fade away.

In addition to regular features from the Guardian throughout the week, this blog will bring you the best of the shuttle-related articles, pictures, audio and video from elsewhere on the web. Do share any thoughts and links with us in the comments below and we will include the best here for everyone to read.

If all goes to plan, on Friday Atlantis will embark on a 12-day mission to the International Space Station, carrying commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim on what will be the last American-controlled flight into space for the foreseeable future. In the shuttle's cargo bay will be the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module, which contains supplies and spare parts for the space station and its crew.

For anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of what happens in the next few days, Nasa's guide to the countdown is a useful starter. The famous countdown clock for the mission will begin ticking around 43 hours before the scheduled launch time and you can also see it in action here and also access up-to-the-minute status reports of the entire mission.

Magazines, newspapers and websites have been filled with pre-emptive shuttle eulogies in the past week, and the mood is bittersweet. Tim Radford's essay on the highs and lows of the shuttle programme is a good place to begin: "The space shuttle broke all records," he says. "But in the end it all but broke Nasa." Over at the Observer, science editor Robin McKie examines the compromises in structure and design that Nasa had to make in order to get the shuttle programme approved and on budget.

The Economist talks of the launch of Atlantis as the end of the Apollo era dreams and "the heroic phase of space exploration, with chiselled-jawed astronauts venturing where no man has gone before, inspiring schoolchildren and defending democracy (or socialism)".

Ever wondered what it feels like to be thrown around as the shuttle falls to the ground from space? Reuters correspondent Irene Klotz describes her recent trip aboard a Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA). Shuttle pilots have to practise hundreds of landings before they are allowed to land the orbiter itself:

As we careened toward ground, coming in seven times steeper than a commercial airliner, the runway looked impossibly small and surrealistic, a dollhouse version of real life. Shuttle landings occur at about 230 miles per hour and it took us less than 30 seconds to reach that point after the STA started to dive.

An article in the Los Angeles Times examines the kind of people who volunteer for this sort of mission, the 358 people who became shuttle astronauts. Lacking the "star power" of their predecessors in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes, writes Ralph Vartabedian, the shuttle astronauts' biggest headlines came in tragedy, when seven died in the 1986 explosion of Challenger and seven more perished in the fiery reentry breakup of Columbia in 2003.

But in many ways, what they accomplished before they walked into Nasa, during their flights and in their careers afterward, was a leap forward. They were well-educated, physically fit, intellectually curious and diverse – men, women, blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans mingled in what before was an exclusive club. The shuttle pilots flew orbiters above Earth with their hands on the thruster controls, delicately docking with the International Space Station and making no-second-chance landings on Earth. They walked in space scores of times, repairing the Hubble telescope and methodically assembling the space station from bits and pieces flown up in the shuttle's big trunk. And their stories became much more a part of the common American fabric, even as they achieved something rarer than winning a lottery. The shuttle astronauts came from every corner of the nation and every background, and scattered in every direction when their space days ended.



The New York Times examines the uncertain future of the scientists and engineers who have devoted themselves to the shuttle programme. Nasa already seems worried about a "brain drain" of talent once the shuttle has been mothballed.

Space experts say the best and brightest often head for the doors when rocket lines get marked for extinction, dampening morale and creating hidden threats. They call it the "Team B" effect. "The good guys see the end coming and leave," said Albert D. Wheelon, a former aerospace executive and Central Intelligence Agency official. "You're left with the B students." Nasa acknowledges the effect and its attendant dangers. It has taken hundreds of steps, including retention bonuses for skilled employees, new perks like travel benefits and more safety drills. Through cuts and attrition in recent years, the shuttle workforce has declined to 7,000 workers from about 17,000.

As the programme draws to a close, it is worth keeping in mind the design and engineering accomplishment of the people who brought us the shuttle. This set of images on Space.com, taken from the archives of Nasa, show how handmade and delicate each shuttle is, a testament to the ingenuity of the engineers, scientists and designers who crafted these extraordinary space vehicles.