With the last flight of Atlantis scheduled 8 July 2011, the Space Shuttle is retiring. In 30 years the Shuttle has highly contributed to the space conquest and in particular in the framework of the cooperation between NASA and ESA. For the European Space Agency indeed the Shuttle has been a great tool not only to carry its astronauts, but also to launch some interesting hardware: satellites, probes or structures. It started in 1983 with Spacelab, predecessor of the Columbus module, currently attached to the International Space Station. This video recalls this fruitful cooperation and the different missions that happened thanks to the Shuttle.

More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/esaHS/index.html