Space Shuttle Atlantis to Retire in Florida after its Final Voyage in June

Space shuttle Atlantis will have its permanent retirement home at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, NASA announced Tuesday.

Florida was among several states vying to house retired orbiters as the shuttle program winds down, and U.S. Rep. Bill Posey hailed NASA Administrator Charles Bolden's decision to choose the Sunshine State.

While it is disappointing to see our shuttle fleet retire, I am excited to welcome home the space shuttle Atlantis which is scheduled to make its 33rd and final launch [in June], and the shuttle programs culminating launch this summer, said Posey, a Rockledge Republican and a former KSC worker.

Since 1985, Atlantis has performed such missions as launching satellites, deploying the Magellan probe to Venus and the Galileo probe to Jupiter; ferrying crew and cargo to Space Station Mir and the International Space Station; and performing the final servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope," Posey said.

The Space Coast's other congressional delegate, Sandy Adams, was equally effusive.

I am thrilled Floridas Kennedy Space Center will be home to the orbiter Atlantis.On the 30th anniversary of NASAs space shuttle program, it is fitting that Kennedy Space Center, which has been the center of shuttle activity, would be the place of retirement for the orbiter Atlantis," Adams, R-Orlando, said in a statement.