Atlantis reached at space station on its last mission

After 30-year since its inception, nearly $200 billion expenditure and costing 14 valuable lives of astronauts, Atlantis is on the final flight of the US shuttle programme arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday for the final time. US space shuttle Atlantis to deliver a last batch of supplies to the orbiting outpost on the final duty.

A two-day journey that began with an emotional farewell from the Kennedy Space Center, about 1 million viewers gathered on Friday to watch the shuttle thunder into the sky for the program's 135th and final flight.

Atlantis is going to retire to make way for a new generation spacecraft of which according to NASA and US president Barack Obama will put US astronauts on an asteroid and then on to Mars.

"Welcome to the International Space Station for the last time," station flight engineer Ron Garan radioed to the crew member.

Mission commentator Rob Navias described the journey as "Poetry in motion".