and here is mission specialist number one, sandy magnus.rex wall heym, he's our mission specialist number two. and here they come. [no sound] [background sounds] >> the crew going down the elevator where they'll be greeted by employees from kennedy space center and members of the news media. this is the same elevator that's been used by the astronauts since the first apollo. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] [background sounds] [cheers and applause] >> the flight crew is now in the flight room of the orbiter access arm. members of the closeout crew are in the white coveralls, and the astronauts, of course, are in the orange pressure suits. the closeout crew will be assisting the astronauts with their helmets and other equipment as they enter the orbiter. >> in the white room, that's chris, number five, and travis, number one, and they're just getting rex in. hopefully, if things go in today, this will be the last astronaut you'll see climbing into a vehicle to go fly into space on the sh

rex walheim, sandy magnus, chris ferguson and doug hurley, thanks to all of you.ward to watching this. cnn will cover it live tomorrow morning. >>> coming up on "american morning" at 8:10 eastern, the head of nasa, dr. charles boulden will be live to talk about the next big pron fear. as rex talked about, whether it's an astroid or mars and how commercial space travel plays into the equation. that's nasa's charles boulden, 8:10 a.m. eastern time. it's 19 minutes after the hour. back to the quote of the day from one of america's distinguished congressmen. he said you are the most viable, unprofessional and despicable member of the u.s. house of representatives. if you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face. otherwise, shut the heck up. that was freshman republican congressman alan west of florida ripping into fellow congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz via e-mail, wasserman disparaged his bill which passed the house last night. here is watt wasserman said that provoked west's response. >> the gentleman from florida who represent th

and here is mission specialist number one, sandy magnus. this is her third spaceflight. she has spent more than four months in space aboard the international space station. she flew on sts 112 and in four and a half months after being on board the space station as a member of the 18 crew. this is rex walheim, our mission specialist number two. he is making his third spaceflight. is spent more than 24 days in space on sts 110 and sts-132 wanted to end his had five spacewalks total more than 36 hours. and he is her very effectively as -- he has served very effectively. so the crew now is finishing pursuit of activities, and they are scheduled to leave for the launch pad and just about 25 minutes. shuttle countdown is continuing to go very well. there's nothing amiss there at all. and the weather is the only concern. maintaining will be, continue to be the low cloudiness, particularly at the shuttle landing facility should we have a need for the crew to turn around and come back with the shuttle, return to launch site. and 80% precipitation. and we have not exactly 20 minut

we see sandy magnus, rex will i'm and chris ferguson. john shannon from houston. our launch vehicle atlantis manager angie brewer. john shannon who served as our program manager at at houston for the shuttle program. >> our launch director in the background, mike linebaugh. and mike moses along with mike linebaugh. there's laurie, our deputy administrator, our administrator charlie bolden. >> scene of happiness as well as mixed emotions. there's the atlantis banner that was on the hatch of atlantis when the hatch was closed. with rex wallheim, getting his picture made with atlantis' banner. mark knappy from the united states alliance. >> you probably can't hear me out there but i'm going to talk to the mike anyway. it's a great day to be here and welcome the crew back home. i personally want to salute them an everybody who has been involved in this program. it's bn a 30-year journey that's been absolutely incredible. i want to say that all of us stand on the shoulders of some giants, none any better than these. they have come been known as the final four. they did

it was played for mission specialist sandy magnus seen here with her crew members.uestions from middle school students. >>> the u.s. women's soccer team world cup quest ended in heartbreak. the americans lost the final to japan on penalty kicks after overtime ended with a 2-2 tie. the loss ends a magical run as the u.s. team hoped to become the fist americans to win the cup since is t1999. japan persevered to be the first asian team to ever win the tournament. those are your headlines. i'm don lemon. cnn, the most troy westwoed nam. >> reporter: in 2007 a scientific exploration planted a russian flag at the bottom of the arctic seabed. what some publically dismissed as a political stunt was privately considered a sputnik-like moment. according to secret leaked cables published by wikileaks the rest of the world began scrambling to get a piece of the arctic pie. that's how i came to be t n the arctic circle to see the escalating tension and activity in the region. oh, yeah. that's brisk. at daybreak, we headed out to rendezvous with one of the two u.s. nuclear submar

chris ferguson is currently orienting atlantis into the proper attitude to enable sandy mcbeth sandy magnuso capture the fuel tank as it drifts away for the final time. currently in an orbit of 140 by 36 statute miles, the preliminary orbit that's increased in altitude in its app ji through the firing system engines. that's 26 minutes from now. [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] >> atlantis for fts. >> that's affirmative, we are ready. >> also, after you get those closed ready for apu shut down, control not required, and when you get ready for ops 105, we are ready as well. >> [inaudible] 3-4, mount required, and we are ready for 105. >> that's a good read back. [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] >> this is mission control houston here in the shuttle flight control room. post and search activities under way under the direction of richard jones, second from your right who presided over all of the work that was done associated with making sure that the weather was acceptable for launch from a return to launch site abort stand point for the space flight meteorology

the song was played for mission specialist sandy magnus seen with her other crew members here.ay they answered questions from middle school students. >>> not only was there no ka nocarmageddon, but it ended early. people stayed away, avoiding a monster gridlock. and crews completed the bridge demolition early, so the 405 opened at noon local time today. >>> after being under police and public scrutiny for more than three years, casey anthony is now free, but we don't know exactly where. anthony walked out of an orlando jail just after midnight. 12 days ago, a jury acquitted her of murdering her daughter, caylee. about 1,000 people were outside the jail in protest. >> caylee! caylee! caylee! >> security was high. her attorneys say she's had multiple death threats. >>> well, it was nail biter in women's soccer at the world cup today. the japanese beating the u.s. in a shootout. we'll have a live report coming from germany and new york straight ahead. efpl,[f=aymh:l p bring it. getting it clean again is easy with bounty. , one sheet of bounty leaves thn as 2 sheets of the bargain

there is sandy magnus.achute harness on. >> she is checking to see that everything is working and moving? >> the fit is right and harness is not too tight or too loose. she is basically waiting for the other two guys to get situated. once they are set, then she will come on in and get into her seat which is behind them. if you see in your camera view now the two guys in the white suits are standing on her seat so she has to wait for them to get out of the way. >> they get out and she is ready to go. they will sit there a couple of hours at least? >> about three hours on your back. >> are you constantly working while waiting? >> no. it gets a little uncomfortable. sitting in that suit and on your back for three hours is not the most comfortable thing but a lot to look forward to. >> absolutely true. all right. garrett, good to see you. thank you so much for being with us. we, obviously, are going to talk to you a lot the next five and ten years as we move into this era of commercial space flight. 30 years af

reporter: now 30 years later, the commander chris ferguson and pilot doug hurley and specialist sandy magnusttle crew. an emotional task for the history books. a little bit sad. >> it's like saying good-bye to an old friend. we want to focus on what the shuttle has done for the country. >> liftoff. >> reporter: for more than three decades over the course of 134 missions the shuttle program allowed nasa to accomplish incredible feats. >> i think we got a satellite. >> able to launch satellites. >> gnome did the shuttle launch the hubble telescope but fixed it when it was a problem. >> in 37 shuttle missions one third of its life been building so that will be exciting. >> reporter: as the launches became more routine, the public's fascination slowlily turned. >> i don't think the americans can know this is really it and another five years may be whether at the send another rocket up on a shuttle mission. >> reporter: this sts-135 was different from the start. the four astronauts were called up as a rescue crew on stand-di for "endeavour" after "columbia" exploded on re-entry. the second time a

specialist sandy magnus on the question, what does president obama need to do to help lead nasa to that> well, certainly i think we need a long term space plan, you know, space flight is a very complicated business and it takes plans that last longer than two or three or four years. and we need a decades long plan, and we need to stay focused on the plan and need to execute that plan. it is not something, developing vehicles and operating in that space needs long term thinking, planning and commitment and that is certainly a good place to start. bill: i hope you are right. specialist rex wallheim gets the toughest question. what was the best music. >> they are all amazing and it was a treat to sit there in the dark of the space shuttle, to listen to the songs, and, then, more important, than the song was the personal greetings, those fantastic artists took time out to say good morning to us and, it meant the world to us. so they were all wonderful. bill: i bet it did. thank you for your time. come on home safely, okay? god bless you all and god bless america. thanks for that. >> thank y

sandy magnus also has a very interesting background as well. engineer, former stealth engineer for mcdonald douglas. now, we just want to show you one of the coolest graphics loaded on the magic wall in a long time. distance traveled by each shuttle over the years, over the duration of the space program. as you can see, discovery had the longest duration, 148 million miles traveled. after that, atlantis, 124 million. and then columbia, and endeavor are pretty much tied, around 122 million a piece. of course, challenger traveled the least miles. 27 million, ended up in the tragic crash in 1986. one other point, atlantis has not finished its work yet. we don't know how many miles it will travel. it's pretty clear to say it's not going to travel 24 million miles in one trip. looking forward to the launch. we will see if the weather holds out. back to you. >> i feel sad about this. stay with us to follow nasa's 135th and final shuttle mission. our coverage begins friday morning at 10:00 eastern here on cnn. jack joins us with the cafferty file. i h

commander chris ferguson, pilot doug hurley, sandy magnus and rex walheim awoke to the tune "godlesse at abc along with all of you watching at home have watched their safe return and so the end to 30 years of the space shuttle program, a historic moment to be sure. we'll return you now to regular programming in somearts o of the country, that's "world news now" or "america this morning." more on the shuttle landing here later on "good morning america." i'm josh elliott in new york. have a good day.t. it's thursday, july 21st. >> announcer: from abc news, this is "world news now." >> good morning, i'm peggy bunker. >> and i'm rob nelson. despite all the warning signs at yosemite, witnesses say a couple got a little toooolose to the rushing water and then got into trouble. another tourist then tried to help and he was also swept away. park rangers and visitors at ththis busy destination simply can't believe what happened. >> yeah, it's really amazing. of course the water levels are so high because we have this incredible winter and so therefore really, really strong rushing waters. jus

sandy magnus, rex walheim. they spent 12 days in space. there they are.s no big deal. you know. hour and a half after the vehicle landed they got off and were, of course, met by charlie bald kin, nasa administrator. mike linebach, launch director was out there. they walked underneath the vehicle and inspected the vehicle. shack a lot of hands. got a lot of hugs. getting a lot of pictures taken right now as we can see and there's that wide shot of the vehicle against the blue sky here in the early morning blue sky in florida. but it is a tremendous moment and as you heard, chris ferguson talking about how, you know, here you had dash he said at the beginning of his remarks that, you know, his dream was flying in space. that he hoped that all of the thousands of other people as you see him walking away there, that were part of the great tradition and as part of the shuttle program that he was honored to be a part of and took them when he flew into space. a tremendous moment for the crew. you know, you wonder, ali, you know, and you wonder -- what it is goin

crew member sandy magnus says we need to think of what we do next. >> this is a very complicated businesstakes plans that last longer than two or three or four years. we need a decade long plan and need to stay focused on that plan and we need to execute that plan. >> you can see the landing right here on "fox & friends" tomorrow morning at 5:56 eastern time, we will be here bright and early for you. ok, also, arnold schwarzenegger's love child scandal getting the law & order treatment now. glad we paused for that. "law & order svu" is producing an episode based on the scandal next season. in the made-up story, a 50-year-old philanthropist has a secret love child with his mistress and his wife, based on maria shriver fighting back when her family is attacked in the press. >> you know what? it's not believable. it will never fly. >> that could never happen in real life. >> good job pausing for drama. those are your headlines. >> all right. the house passes a cut, cap and balance act and they did it overwhelmingly as the gang of six comes up with a deal at the same time. that breeds new lif

. >> mission specialist sandy magnus now out of her seat of the flight deck making her way down to the mid deck to begin the preliminary configuration of the systems down there. in the meantime, rex walheim working on the flight deck hardware. commander chris ferguson and pilot doug hurley will be checking out the shuttle's robotic arm unfurling it from the port's seal of the shuttles' payload bay at about the six and a half hour mark of the mission, performing a check out of its systems before it's used tomorrow to grapple the orbital boom sensor system for the initial inspection of atlantis' thermal protection system. [no audio] >> houston, consider complete with the checklist. if you agree, we can compose insertion. >> we do agree with that atlantis, and while i got you, fergie, if you want to set a timer for your config it's at 3: 19. >> three hours and 39 minutes, we appreciate that. >> you bet. [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] >> here in the control room, the team looking over the shoulders of atlantis' team as they set up orbit operations. the exact liftoff time for a