Shuttle Atlantis touches down in Florida
The shuttle Atlantis glided to a landing under partly cloudy Florida skies this morning, ending a successful 13-day assembly mission to the international space station.
The mission was the first of six NASA plans this year to advance the assembly of the space station and provide the 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope with a final overhaul.
Today's landing also cleared the way for the Pentagon to attempt the missile intercept of a falling U.S. spy satellite that carries toxic hydrazine fuel. If successful, the intercept will create a temporary cloud of low-altitude debris from the 5,000-pound satellite that could have posed a threat to Atlantis as the shuttle decended.
Today's weather at Kennedy, partly cloudy skies and light winds, was never in doubt as the astronauts readied Atlantis for the descent to Earth. If necessary, NASA was prepared to bring the shuttle back to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
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Frick, Poindexter, Rex Walheim, Stan Love, Leland Melvin, Dan Tani and European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel of Germany planned to spend tonight night in Florida, undergoing medical checks and reuniting with family members.
NASA will fly them back to their Johnson Space Center training base in Houston on Thursday. The space agency plans a 4 p.m. welcoming ceremony that is open to the public at Ellington Field, NASA hangar 276.
Tani is returning after a four-month stay on the space station that began with the Oct. 23 launching of the shuttle Discovery. Tani's mission, originally scheduled to wrap up before Christmas, was extended until NASA could overcome a vexing shuttle fuel gauge problem.
Atlantis lifted off on Feb. 7 on what was to be an 11-day mission to deliver the European Space Agency's $2.1 billion Columbus science module.
The module was installed by the astronauts with three spacewalks. The mission was twice extended by a day, once to reschedule a spacewalk so Schlegel could overcome a temporary illness and again to help with the outfitting of the new lab module.
European Space Agency astronaut Leopold Eyharts , who launched aboard Atlantis, will remain aboard the space station until late March, setting up science experiments on Columbus.
Preparations are under way in Florida for the March 11 launching of the shuttle Endeavour to the space station with the first piece of a Japanese science lab and a Canadian furnished robotic device.
Eyharts will be prepared to return to Earth aboard Endeavour at the end of a 16-day mission.
The largest segment of the Japanese lab, Kibo, is tentatively slated for a late April launching.
Meanwhile, Atlantis will under go preparations for an Aug. 28 liftoff on an 11-day mission to overhaul Hubble's power and steering system. The telescope will also recieve new science instruments.