November 1, 2012

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Last US shuttle's retirement means job losses

In this Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012 photo, shuttle technician Joe Walsh looks through a hatch of the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis isn't going far to its retirement home at Kennedy Space Center's main tourist stop. But it might as well be a world away for the workers who spent decades doting on Atlantis and NASA's other shuttles. Those who agreed to stay until the end - and help with the shuttles' transition from round-the-world flying marvels to museum showpieces - now face unemployment just as so many of their colleagues did over the last few years. (AP Photo/Marcia Dunn)
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In this Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012 photo, shuttle technician Joe Walsh looks through a hatch of the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis isn't going far to its retirement home at Kennedy Space Center's main tourist stop. But it might as well be a world away for the workers who spent decades doting on Atlantis and NASA's other shuttles. Those who agreed to stay until the end - and help with the shuttles' transition from round-the-world flying marvels to museum showpieces - now face unemployment just as so many of their colleagues did over the last few years. (AP Photo/Marcia Dunn)

(AP)—Space shuttle Atlantis isn't going far to its retirement home. Early Friday, it will move just 10 miles (16 kilometers) to Kennedy Space Center's main tourist stop to be put on display in Florida.

Atlantis was the last shuttle to orbit Earth, and it's the last of the three surviving space shuttles to be moved to retirement exhibits. It will go on display next summer.

Atlantis' move signals the loss of jobs for hundreds of space shuttle workers at Cape Canaveral over the next few months.

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