Oh, how the times have changed... its final mission saw Atlantis successfully deliver the Russian Mini-Research Module Rassvet to the ISS. She'll be prepped one last time to stand-by as a rescue ship for the upcoming (and final) missions of Endeavor and Discovery, but Atlantis' days in space are likely over.
Archaeologists first thought the discovery was wharfage, but further investigations established that it was a 15th Century ocean going ship of national significance.
Trustees had hoped the building set to house the hull of the 500-year-old ship would be ready in 2012 for the 30th anniversary of the wreck's discovery.
Just after Discovery's engines fired, launch controllers noticed a small rectangular object drop from the bottom of the ship, carom off an engine bell and vanish into the exhaust flames.