On Sunday the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station, orbiting at 400 km above Earth. It carried 3.6 tons of food and other supplies for six months' use by the ISS occupants.
After the shuttle crew spends about a week in the ISS, it will return to Earth on the final mission of the 30-year space shuttle program. Since 1981, NASA's five space shuttles have taken 355 astronauts into space on 135 missions — or 847 astronauts if astronauts on repeat trips are counted. The shuttles have ferried some 70 percent of people who have been to space.
In 1992, Mr. Mamoru Mori became the first Japanese to board a space shuttle, followed by six others. The space shuttle program ends 50 years after Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first human to fly in space in 1961.