5 years after shuttle, NASA awaits commercial crew capsules

(AP) — 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.

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

"[...] 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.

Kennedy Space Center's director, former astronaut Robert Cabana, said it was bittersweet hearing Atlantis' twin sonic booms on return one last time.

For only the second time, the leftover first-stage booster of a SpaceX Falcon rocket landed back at Cape Canaveral following Monday's launch, its return heralded by sonic booms.