5 years after shuttle, NASA awaits commercial crew capsules

CAPE CANAVERAL — Five years after Atlantis completed the space shuttle program’s final voyage, NASA is still at least a year away from launching its astronauts from U.S. soil.

The other is one of four NASA astronauts training for the initial test flights.

Ever since shuttles Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour retired to museums, Americans have been stuck riding Russian rockets to the space station.

Commercial space stations probably will replace the multination space station, Ferguson noted.

“So we’re sort of setting the stage for commercial habitation of low-Earth orbit — all with the intent of going beyond,” he said.

On this fifth anniversary of the last shuttle flight, space station commander Jeffrey Williams prefers to focus on the future, rather than the past.

During a July 8 commemoration of the shuttle’s last liftoff, Ferguson and his co-pilot, Douglas Hurley, recalled how they had to practically be dragged from the cockpit following touchdown.

Hurley noted how he, Ferguson and the two other Atlantis astronauts — Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim — turned out the cabin lights the night before landing and took in the views of Earth.