Atlantis was the 4th space shuttle after Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger and Discovery.
The entire Space Transportation System program was officially launched on January 5, 1972 with an announcement by United States President Richard Nixon.
The goal of the program was a space transportation vehicle that would repeatedly carry astronauts into space once a week at a cost of about $5,000,000 per launch. However, the actual cost was 100 times higher.
 
Technical parameters:
dimensions: wingspan 23.79 m, length 37.24 m, height 17.25 m
weight 68 635 kg
propulsion unit 2x SRB launching stage + SSME main engines with 2 278 kN thrust
combustion chamber temperature 3 300 °C
payload mass up to 115 000 kg
cargo compartment dimensions 18.3 x 5.2 x 4 m
heat shield resistance TPS 1 260°C (number of heat shield tiles 30 000)
crew capacity 7 persons (maximum 10 - emergency)
 
The first shuttle designed for tests in Earth's atmosphere was completed on September 17, 1976, under the original name Constitution. However, under pressure from fans of the Star Trek television series, it was renamed Enterprise.
In order to build the space shuttles at all, NASA had to develop many new materials and technologies that took human civilization to a new level.
In total, several hundred patents were applied for that are still used by mankind today, such as lightweight batteries, a special thermal foil that saves lives around the world, a miniature pump that now powers an artificial heart, an infrared camera, and hundreds of other innovations.
The space shuttle Atlantis has flown a total of 33 missions, spent 306 days in space, orbited the Earth 4,677 times, carried 207 people, carried 14 satellites into orbit, and the crew has made 25 ascents into open space.
The programme was terminated in 2011 after two accidents (Challenger/Columbia) and funding exhaustion. Today, Atlantis is on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.