CAPE CANAVERAL (AFP) - Atlantis touched down for a final time Thursday, ending its last mission to the International Space Station and bringing down the curtain on NASAs 30-year space shuttle program. The shuttle and its four-member US crew cruised home to a predawn landing at Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 am (0957 GMT), closing an era of human space exploration for the United States and leaving Russia as the worlds only taxi to the ISS. Atlantis is home, its journey complete. A moment in history to be savored, mission controls commentator in Houston said as the white orbiter, emblazoned with an American flag, rolled to a stop. Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, its place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time, its voyage at an end. Shuttle commander Chris Ferguson praised the thousands of people who worked on the shuttle program since its first space flight in 1981. The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world, it has changed the way we view our universe, he said. There was a lot of emotion today but one thing is indisputable: America is not going to stop exploring. Twin sonic booms were heard over Florida moments before the shuttle glided home to perfect summer weather with clear skies and hardly any wind at the Kennedy Space Center.