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The space shuttle Atlantis is shown with the Earth in the background in this image...
Wed, Feb 20 08:31 PM
Space shuttle Atlantis landed at its Florida home port on Wednesday after a mission to deliver Europe's first permanent space lab to orbit, clearing the way for the U.S. military to shoot down a dead spy satellite.
The shuttle touched down at 9:07 a.m. EST (1407 GMT) at the Kennedy Space Center, where NASA already has its next spaceship at the launch pad for a March 11 flight to continue assembling the International Space Station.
Flying through crisp and clear skies, Atlantis commander Stephen Frick circled high over the spaceport to burn off speed, then nosed the 100-ton spaceplane onto a 4.8 km-long, canal-lined runway just a few km west of where the shuttle blasted off 13 days ago.
"Thanks for keeping us safe when we're airborne and bringing us safely home," Frick told ground controllers after the shuttle touched down.
Atlantis' return frees the U.S. Navy to fire a missile as early as Wednesday night at the falling spy satellite, which is loaded with toxic rocket propellant.
The military says the fuel could pose a hazard to populated areas and that destroying the satellite just before it re-enters Earth's atmosphere increases the chance that debris will fall harmlessly into the ocean. The satellite was launched in December 2006 and failed shortly after reaching orbit.
Atlantis needed to land before the military operation to avoid flying through satellite wreckage as it returned to Earth and risk heat shield damage similar to what triggered shuttle Columbia's destruction in 2003.
The space station, which orbits more than 320 km above the planet, would not be endangered by the satellite debris, which is expected to be pulled into Earth's atmosphere and incinerated within a few days after the spacecraft is destroyed.
The operation, likewise, is not expected to impede NASA's plans to return to the station with shuttle Endeavour next month to install the first piece of Japan's three-part Kibo laboratory complex, where a berthing port opposite Europe's newly arrived Columbus module awaits.
SETTING UP MODULE
The Atlantis crew ferried the long-delayed, $1.9 billion European module to the space station and left French astronaut Leopold Eyharts in charge of setting it up.
Eyharts replaced returning space station flight engineer Dan Tani, whose planned two-month mission was extended to four months after fuel sensor glitches spurred NASA to reschedule Atlantis' launch from December to February.
The astronauts conducted three spacewalks during their nine-day stay at the outpost to hook up the lab, mount science experiments to its outer hull and work on the station's cooling system.
German astronaut Hans Schlegel was sidelined from the first spacewalk by an undisclosed medical condition, but he recovered to join lead spacewalker Rex Walheim for the second outing.
Stanley Love, who replaced Schlegel on the first spacewalk, partnered with Walheim for the final venture outside the station.
Rounding out Atlantis' seven-man crew was pilot Alan Poindexter and former National Football League player Leland Melvin, who operated robotic cranes aboard the space station and shuttle.
NASA hopes to fly five more of its remaining 12 missions this year, including a late summer servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope, before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. Eleven flights are needed to complete construction and resupply of the $100 billion space station.
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