At the Merritt Island Launch Annex (MILA) Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network Station at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, one of two signature 30-foot steerable S-band antennas is slewed from the horizontal to the vertical position for the last time during a closing ceremony recognizing the station's 45 years of service. The antenna was pointed at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility as it was for its last assignment, support of the landing of space shuttle Atlantis, concluding the STS-135 mission. STS-135 was the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program. The station was originally established by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center as one of 17 Space Flight Tracking and Data Network stations around the world. Commissioned for the Apollo Program, the first launch it supported was the Apollo/Saturn 203 test flight from Launch Complex 37 on July 5, 1966. It also provided orbital support for low earth-orbiting scientific satellites. In recent history, the station has been used almost exclusively for space shuttle launch and landing support. Following the final launch and landing of the Space Shuttle Program in July 2011, the MILA station is officially decommissioned.
<bdi><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117448892" class="extiw" title="d:Q117448892"><span title="NASA photographer">Kim Shiflett</span></a>
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