Last Friday, after 27 years of service, NASA powered down space shuttle Discovery for the very last time. This week, space shuttle Atlantis — which five months ago today touched down at Kennedy Space Center, marking the end of the US Space Shuttle Program — will share the same fate.
In the coming weeks, Atlantis will be disemboweled, its interior stripped bare to ensure that that the craft is light enough to be displayed safely at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Here's your chance to catch a rare glimpse of Atlantis' intact insides, powered and lit for the very last time.
The images, which were were captured last week by collectSPACE.com's Robert Z. Pearlman, reveal the impressive array of screens and instrumentation sprawled across every visible surface of the shuttle's flight deck.
These are just a few pictures from a larger photo gallery that explores Antlantis' flight deck, middeck, and 60-foot payload bay. The entire gallery is excellent, and is definitely worth checking out. [collectSPACE]
All images by Robert Z. Pearlman via collectSPACE
