Shortly before berthing, Endeavour performed a nine-minute back-flip, known as a rendezvous pitch manoeuvre, allowing the ISS crew to capture up to 300 photographs of the shuttle's thermal protection system.

BBC: Shuttle crew welcomed aboard ISS

Even the shuttle will live on, in some sense, since the Space Launch System the unromantic name of the beefy rocket needed to loft astronauts and cargoes into high orbits or farther into the solar system will be built partly from recycled shuttle parts in an effort to save money and use familiar technology.

ECONOMIST: The space shuttle

And the 10, 900mAh battery is charged in part by a regenerative breaking system packed into the shuttle.

ENGADGET

So for the shuttle, the agency developed a system of mix-and-match suit parts that come in different sizes.

NPR: NASA's Future Spacesuits Are Made for Walking

Before the shuttle docked, it did a nine-minute backflip so station astronauts could take high-resolution pictures of the shuttle's thermal-protection system, NASA said.

CNN: Endeavour docks with space station

In the aftermath of the Challenger disaster, it became transparently obvious that the United States could ill-afford to depend virtually entirely upon so fragile a system as the space shuttle for its access to space.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Why Is Bush Sacrificing The US Space Launch Industry To Promote Those Of Foreign Competition?

The Ares rocket system being developed to loft the shuttle's replacement into orbit has also come under fire.

BBC: Obama names US space agency chief

In 1996 Lockheed won competitions to build a replacement for the space shuttle, an infra-red satellite-warning system and a new rocket-launcher for the American air force.

ECONOMIST: Lockheed Martin

This overgrown iPod of a remote is the wireless heart of the Sonos Digital Music System, a delightful--if expensive--way to shuttle music from computer or Internet around the house.

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