Atlantis prepares for final flight home

Shuttle Atlantis is expected to land at Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 a.m. EDT (0957 GMT) on July 21, 2011, after its 13-day mission, Reuters reported.

The four crewmembers left a space shuttle model and an American flag as mementos to commemorate the shuttle program's 30-year history. The flag flew aboard the Columbia spaceship on the first US shuttle mission in 1981.

"We're closing a chapter in the history of our nation," said space station flight engineer Ron Garan.

NASA says the flag will remain affixed to the station's air lock until astronauts who ride to the station aboard a capsule built by US commercial companies open the lock in the coming years.

"We are going to be opening a new era and raising the flag on a new era of exploration," Garan said.

Atlantis delivered more than 5 tons of food, clothing, equipment and other supplies in the shuttle's last mission to the ISS.

After the fleet is retired, US astronauts will fly to the ISS on Russian Soyuz rockets until perhaps the middle of the decade.

Cargo runs will also be handled by Russia, Europe and Japan, as well as four US companies, Space Exploration Technologies, Orbital Sciences Corp., Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin.