Shuttle Atlantis rolled into retirement on Friday (November 2) taking a slow 10-mile (16 km) ride atop a massive platform from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to the Visitor Center.

Atlantis, which ended the 30-year-old space shuttle program with a final flight last year, will be the star attraction of a new $100 million exhibit at the privately operated Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex adjacent to the NASA spaceport.

Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, which operates the visitors' center, plans to suspend the 154,000-pound (69,853-kg) spaceship from the ceiling with its cargo bay doors open to simulate the vehicle in orbit.

Atlantis, which flew 33 missions, is the third and last operational space shuttle to become a museum piece.