After 30 years of making history, NASA sent off its space shuttle Atlantis for the last time. Gloomy weather did not rain on the astronaut’s parade as the shuttle left Kennedy Space Center this morning.

Atlantis sends up a crew of five, which includes Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialist’s Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim. An estimated 1 million viewers watched on their TV sets, while another 750,000 got to see it live from nearby spots. After today’s 135th and final launch for the space shuttle NASA will begin to lay off thousands of workers. From now on only Russia’s space capsules will have the ability to send astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Although it was a glorious launch, many American’s happiness floated off into the air as the realization of not having the ability to launch astronauts anymore sets in.