Eastern Air Defense Sector Supports NASA's Final Space Shuttle Mission

Rescue Team from 106th Airlift Wing is Also Part of Last Launch.

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Space Shuttle Atlantis roars into space this morning. (Photo by Army Lt. Col. Michael Humphreys. )

ROME, NY (07/08/2011)(readMedia)-- New York Air National Guardsmen from the Eastern Air Defense Sector supported the launch of NASA's final space shuttle mission this morning.

EADS primary role was controlling air patrols that enforced the Federal Aviation Administration's temporary no-fly zone around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. EADS directed F-15E aircraft from the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. to conduct this mission.

"It's been an honor for EADS to support the space shuttle program and to have played a small role in the nation's space exploration," said Col. John P. Bartholf, EADS Commander.

Airmen from the New York Air National Guard's 106th Rescue Wing, based at Westhampton Beach, N.Y. ,also played a role in the final shuttle mission. An HC-130 aircraft and para-rescue jumpers assigned to the wing were on hand at Patrick Air Force Base, adjacent to the space center launch complex, to provide rescue support if the shuttle astronauts had been forced to abort the mission and bail out of the spacecraft.

Officially known as STS-135 (STS stands for Space Transportation System), today's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis was the 33rd flight for the ship, which first went into space on Oct. 3, 1985. According to published estimates, 750,000 to one million people watched the final launch from the Kennedy Space Center and beaches and roads around the site.

Atlantis is scheduled to return to Earth on July 20 and then be retired to serve as the centerpiece of a new exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Other retired space shuttles will be on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.; the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.

The Eastern Air Defense Sector is headquartered at Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome. Staffed by active-duty New York Air National Guardsmen and a Canadian Forces detachment, the unit supports the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) integrated warning and attack assessment missions and the U.S. Northern Command's (USNORTHCOM) homeland defense mission. EADS is responsible for air sovereignty and counter-air operations over the eastern United States and directs a variety of assets to defend one million square miles of land and sea.