good bye

Atlantis retires

After 32 missions, space shuttle Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US, for perhaps the last time. It was the last planned flight in the shuttle’s 25-year career as Nasa winds down its shuttle programme after three decades. Atlantis had docked at the International Space Station for a week to instal a Russian research module, deliver supplies and set up a backup Ku-band antenna, among other things. Atlantis had blasted off on its first mission on October 3, 1985. Nasa has only two more shuttle missions scheduled — Discovery will fly in September or October and Endeavour will make a final flight late this year or early the next. Atlantis, however, will be kept in flight-ready condition for rescue missions.

high six

Top of the world

Do you like the mountains? Well, 13-year-old Jordan Romero of California, US, loves them so much that he has climbed the highest peaks in six of the seven continents — he just has to climb Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antarctica, to reach his goal of climbing the highest mountain on every continent. While trying for this record, the teenager has got himself another one recently. He is now the youngest person to have climbed Mount Everest, beating Temba Tsheri Sherpa of Nepal who climbed the world’s highest mountain when he was 16. Now, age seems to be no bar.