spacetoday.net: Shuttle returns to KSC

Posted: Wed, Jul 4, 2007, 6:18 PM ET (2218 GMT)
STS-117: shuttle returning to KSC on 747 (NASA/KSC)

The space shuttle Atlantis finally returned to the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, more than a week after the orbiter landed in California. A 747 aircraft carrying Atlantis landed at KSC Tuesday morning, ending a cross-country trip that started Sunday in California and featured stops in Texas, Nebraska, and Kentucky to avoid poor weather en route. The shuttle landed June 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California at the end of the STS-117 mission rather than at KSC because of poor weather in Florida that scrubbed landing attempts there for two days. Atlantis is next scheduled to fly again in December on a mission to install a European lab module to the International Space Station; two other shuttle missions, by Endeavour and Discovery, are planned for August and October.