Cigars were passed around, flowers brightened desktops and pictures snapped from all angles as NASA employees hugged, laughed and cried after the shuttle Atlantis landed one final time.

Astronauts and space agency chiefs circled the orbiter as it rested on the runway, gazing at the vessel as it bathed in the morning sunlight at Kennedy Space Center after a flawless touchdown Thursday at 5:57 am (0957 GMT).

"Flying in space is a real dream," said commander Chris Ferguson, who addressed reporters after becoming the last person to climb out of the shuttle before it transitions from complex flying machine to museum piece.

Atlantis's landing marked the end of an era for the 30-year shuttle program which made low-Earth orbit a commonplace destination for US astronauts, launched the Hubble Space Telescope and helped construct the International Space Station.

Mission specialist Rex Walheim said he and crewmates Sandy Magnus and Doug Hurley "each got choked up at different times in the mission."

For Walheim, it was the moment when Atlantis pulled away from the ISS for the last time.

"It was a magnificent sight, it was dark... and when the station crew said 'Atlantis is departing,' it just, that was one that really choked me up."

NASA has pledged to continue to send astronauts to the ISS for the next decade, albeit aboard Russia's Soyuz space capsules at a cost of $50-60 million per seat.

Only a few US astronauts per year are scheduled to fly to the ISS through 2015.

By then, NASA hopes that private industry will have come up with a capsule that can tote astronauts and cargo to the ISS, while the space agency focuses on its first manned deep space mission.

President Barack Obama, who axed the Constellation program that would have returned astronauts to the moon, has instead ordered the agency to funnel its energy and cash into sending people to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by 2030.

"Children... who dream of being astronauts today won't get to fly on the space shuttle, but one day they may walk on Mars," NASA administrator Charles Bolden told a crowd of employees at KSC.

"I was proud to be a part of the shuttle program and will carry those cherished memories and experiences with me for the rest of my life," he said through tears. "But I am also ready to get on with the next big challenge."

Budget constraints and the need to set sights on new horizons have necessitated the end of the longtime centerpiece of American spaceflight, which cost an average of $500 million each mission since it first launched in 1981.

"You can't continue to do the same things and expect to do something else that is better. You have to have change," said Bob Cabana, Kennedy Center director.

"In the austere budget times that we have, we cannot afford to continue to fly the space shuttle and still work on those future programs."

At Kennedy Space Center, and also at mission control in Houston, employees were joyful and nostalgic as they made the rounds and congratulated one another on decades of leadership in spaceflight.

"I saw grown men and grown women crying today, tears of joy to be sure," said Mike Leinbach, space shuttle launch director.

Laurel Lichtenberger, site manager at KSC, said she had "very mixed feelings."

"There is a large part of me that is very sad, having such a wonderful program come to a close. But there is another part of me that is very excited about what the future is going to bring for us."

NASA commentator George Diller, who has worked on the shuttle program for 30 years, said: "I tried to say 'no, I am not going go get emotional about this,' but today it really, really hit me."

Leinbach said that while the workforce is reeling from the thousands of job losses that come with the end of the shuttle program, they have known it was coming for several years and had plenty of time to work through the stages of denial, anger, exploration and acceptance.

"We have accepted the fact that it is over, and I believe the workforce has handled that change well," he said.

"I heard nothing but pride out on the runway today as I talked to people between hugs and pats on the back," Leinbach said.

"People are proud that they have been part of this amazing program, this amazing bit of history. No one can ever take that away from us.

"This is the end of the program. People will move on and do well. It is important but it is not the end of the world. The sun will rise again tomorrow."

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