Space shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space shuttle Atlantis touched down at its Florida home port on Friday, wrapping up an 11-day mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, one of NASA's final supply runs before the shuttle fleet is retired next year.
Gliding through clear, blue skies, commander Charles Hobaugh circled Atlantis high over the Kennedy Space Center to burn off speed, then nosed the 100-ton space plane toward a 3-mile (4.8-km) concrete runway framed by palm trees and marshlands.
"Couldn't have picked a clearer day," Hobaugh said as he caught sight of the runway.
Atlantis touched down at 9:44 a.m. EST, capping NASA's fifth and final flight of the year and the 129th mission in shuttle program history.
"That was a picture perfect end," astronaut Chris Ferguson radioed to the crew from Mission Control in Houston. "Everybody welcome back to Earth."
Just five shuttle missions remain to complete the $100 billion orbital outpost, a project of 16 nations that has been under construction 220 miles above Earth for 11 years.
"We're entering the golden era of the International Space Station program," station crew member Bob Thirsk, with the Canadian Space Agency, said during an inflight press conference this week.
NASA is building capsule-type spaceships to replace the shuttles, which are being retired due to safety concerns and high operating costs.
NOT READY UNTIL 2015
The new ships also will enable NASA to fly astronauts to the moon and other destinations in the solar system, in addition to the station. They will not be ready until 2015 at the earliest, however.
Until then, Russian, European and Japanese cargo ships will take over the job of flying food, fuel and supplies to the outpost, though none can handle the bulky station spare parts that fit in the shuttle cargo bay.
NASA also is hoping to turn over cargo deliveries and possibly crew transport to commercial U.S. companies.
Joining the six Atlantis astronauts for the ride back to Earth was space station flight engineer Nicole Stott, who has been aboard the outpost for three months. Stott is the last station crew member scheduled to catch a ride on the shuttle.
The Russian Soyuz capsule now becomes the station's exclusive taxi, a service that costs the United States about $50 million a seat.
Three more station crew members will depart on November 30, leaving the outpost with a two-member crew for the first time since 2006. Three replacements are due to arrive on December 23. The station will remain one short of its full six-member staff until March.
During their week-long stay at the space station, the Atlantis astronauts delivered 15 tons of spare parts, supplies and science experiments, including containers of butterflies so students can monitor their development in orbit.
The astronauts also conducted three spacewalks to install communications antennas and cargo attachments, replace an airlock oxygen tank and perform some maintenance on the station's robotic crane.
Atlantis brought back the station's broken water-recycler, a system designed to purify urine and waste water into potable water. NASA hopes to figure out why the device failed in the microgravity environment of space and send up a replacement on its next shuttle mission in February.
Shuttle Endeavour and six astronauts are scheduled to blast off around February 4 with the station's final connecting hub and a six-sided, glass cupola that will give crew members a 360-degree view out the window.
(Editing by Jim Loney and Mohammad Zargham)
