* Astronomy

For 45 years, an unassuming tracking station tucked behind Kennedy Space Centre provided critical data, telemetry and voice communication links to hundreds of launching rockets, circling satellites and landing shuttles.
But the station known as MILA -- short for Merritt Island Launch Annex -- supported its last mission this month with shuttle Atlantis' launch and safe return.
In a ceremony Thursday morning, NASA officially decommissioned the aging facility before some components are salvaged for other sites and the rest is demolished.
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