Historic Images of Final Spacewalk of Shuttle Era

By Nancy Atkinson - July 13, 2011 at 9:32 PM UTC | Space Exploration
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It's the end of an era: the final spacewalk during the space shuttle era was conducted by astronauts on July 12, 2011 during the final shuttle mission, STS-135. This is the 160th spacewalk supporting assembly and maintenance of the space station and the 249th EVA conducted by U.S. astronauts. The two spacwalkers were actually from the International Space Station crew, Expedition 28's Mike Fossum and Ron Garan, but were assisted by the shuttle crew. Shuttle Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus operated operate the station's 58-foot-long Canadarm 2 to maneuver the spacewalkers around during the spacewalk.

Here are more images from the EVA:

[caption id="attachment_87443" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Astronaut Ron Garan egresses the Quest airlock on the International Space Station as he prepares to join crewmate Mike Fossum for the spacewalk. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87444" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Mike Fossum works outside the ISS during the six and a half hour spacewalk, the final of the shuttle era. Credit: NASA."]

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[caption id="attachment_87445" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="No, this isn't a picture of an astronaut carrying a freezer outside the space station. With his feet secured on a restraint on the space station remote manipulator system's robotic arm Canadarm2, Mike Fossum holds the Robotics Refueling Mission payload, an experiment which will test in-flight refueling with the DEXTRE robot. Fossum and Ron Garan installed the experiment during the July 12 EVA. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87446" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Suspended in a very unique position on the end of Canadarm2, Mike Fossum takes a picture during a July 12 spacewalk. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87447" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Space shuttle Atlantis makes a cameo in this image as Mike Fossum takes a picture during the spacewalk while on a foot restraint on the Canadarm 2. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87484" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Ron Garan during the spacewalk: "I almost had 1 foot in day and 1 foot in night Orbital sunset," said Garan via Twitter of this picture. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87454" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="A view of the Cupola on the ISS, and if you look closely, you can see faces of several of the Atlantis STS-135 and Expediton 28 crewmembers looking out the windows. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87449" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Another view of Mike Fossum during the spacewalk. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87450" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="A close-up view of Mike Fossum during the final EVA of the shuttle era. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87451" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="With his feet secured on a restraint on Canadarm2, Mike Fossum holds the Robotics Refueling Mission payload. The failed pump module is with DEXTRE in the upper left corner of the photo. The blue color on the space station module is a reflection from the blue of planet Earth. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87486" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption=""Knocking on the door to come back in from space after yesterday's spacewalk," said Ron Garan via Twitter. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87452" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Following the six-hour, 31-minute EVA, spacewalkers Ron Garan (top left) and Mike Fossum (top right), pose in the ISS's Quest airlock with Chris Ferguson, STS-135 commander, Doug Hurley, pilot, and Rex Walheim, mission specialist. Credit: NASA"]

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[caption id="attachment_87453" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Here's how astronauts train for their EVAs, in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near NASA's Johnson Space Center. Here astronauts Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus (mostly obscured), are raised from the waters of the N as a spacewalk training session comes to a close. Divers were in the water to assist Magnus and Walheim in their rehearsal. Credit: NASA"]

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For larger versions of any of these images, and to see more images from the STS-135 mission, see

NASA's Human Spaceflight website's mission gallery.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com