KSC-2012-6316

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The space shuttle Atlantis is lifted and tilted for display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Atlantis will be exhibited at 43.21 degrees with its payload bay doors open so the shuttle will look as it did in space. Atlantis was wrapped in a protective plastic to protect it from dust and debris while being prepared for display. The new home of Atlantis is scheduled to open in July 2013. The exhibits in the new, 90,000-square-foot interactive facility will tell the story of the 30-year Space Shuttle Program and what lies ahead in space exploration. More than 60 exhibits will be set up around Atlantis, including a full-scale mockup of the Hubble Space Telescope and a full-scale model of a portion of the International Space Station. Over the course of its 26-year career, Atlantis traveled 125,935,769 miles during 307 days in space over 33 missions. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/transition Photo credit: NASA/ Dimitri Gerondidakis