AtCrux

Space shuttle Atlantis is on its final journey in space until White House grants permission. The scheduled landing for Atlantis is on Wednesday.

NASA is under presidential direction to get out of the business of launching astronauts into orbit around the Earth and, instead, focus on sending them to asteroids and Mars. The Obama Administration would like private business to pick up the slack. Until that happens, NASA astronauts will continue catching rides to and from the space station on Russian rockets.

Sacbee