KSC-2011-5004

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- STS-135 Commander Chris Ferguson, holding an American flag to commemorate the U.S. Independence Day holiday, speaks to media at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-135 astronauts arrived at Kennedy about 2:30 p.m. EDT on July 4 for final preparations for space shuttle Atlantis' STS-135 mission to the International Space Station. Atlantis is scheduled to lift off on July 8 to deliver the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module packed with supplies and spare parts to the station. The STS-135 mission also will fly a system to investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing satellites and return a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems. STS-135 will be the 33rd flight of Atlantis, the 37th shuttle mission to the space station, and the 135th and final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. For more information visit, www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett