NEW: Atlantis Landed. Then Nobody Went for Twelve Years
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NEW: Atlantis Landed. Then Nobody Went for Twelve Years
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Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down on July 21 2011 and the shuttle program ended with it. By that point the machine was irreplaceable, not because it was precious but because it had been repaired and adapted so many times that every component was one of a kind. The only thing left to do was glide it home with no engines and one shot at the runway.
There is something worth sitting with in the fact that Doug Hurley piloted that final mission and then, six years later, commanded SpaceX Demo 2, the flight that put Americans back into orbit from American soil for the first time since Atlantis landed. Both ends of a twelve year gap. Same person. Artemis II splashdown is at 8:07 Eastern tomorrow and Jeremy Hansen is on board for his very first time in space. Someone on this show opened a Twitter account he hasn't touched in years just to find pictures of this crew every morning. That is the actual measure of what this mission has done to people.
Twelve years between then and now. The waiting is the part worth understanding.
Topics: Space Shuttle Atlantis final mission, Artemis II splashdown, Doug Hurley SpaceX, throwback Thursday 2011, Jeremy Hansen
Originally aired on 2026-04-09