Atlantis Safely Lands at California Desert after Completing Mission

The shuttle touched down the tarmac at 12:49 p.m. local time at the Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, north Los Angeles.

The landing came after NASA had passed up altogether four chances to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida because of rain and low clouds in the area.

Atlantis had taken off on June 8 on what was to be an 11-day mission mainly to install a new structural truss and electricity-generating solar panels on the International Space Station. The mission was extended by two days so that astronaut could do a spacewalk to staple down a thermal blanket that had come loose during launch. It was then extended another day because of the bad weather in Florida.

Before Atlantis was undocked from the ISS, the shuttle's thrusters helped maintain the station's orientation until the computers that control orientation and oxygen production on the Russian side resumed operating.

Welcome Back, Atlantis!  Source: NYT

Tags: altlantis, space shuttle, california, airforce base, iss

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