A Year Later, The American Space Program Seeks Definition After
The Shuttle Era It was just a year ago... and the dream was
nearly over. After decades of watching American ingenuity and
perseverance launch hundreds of people into space, we were about
to relegate our last manned launch system to the scrap heap of
history... with no real way to know when that capability might
someday be restored -- if ever. It was STS-134... the last
flight of Endeavour. The STS-134 mission was crewed by Commander
Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H. Johnson and Mission Specialists
Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and European
Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori. During the 14-day
mission, Endeavour delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2
(AMS), a particle physics detector designed to operate from the
station and search for various types of unusual matter. Also
onboard for delivery were station spare parts on the ExPRESS
Logistics Carrier 3 (ELC3), including two S-band communications
antennas, a high-pressure gas t