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Atlantis arrives back home after cross-country trip BY JUSTIN RAY SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: July 3, 2007 Space shuttle Atlantis returned home to the Kennedy Space Center this morning, completing a two-day coast-to-coast piggyback ride atop a modified 747 ferrying jet that included rare stops in America's heartland.
Atlantis departed the the Mojave Desert base at 9:04 a.m. EDT Sunday. The unique shuttle and 747 duo flew east to the Texas Panhandle, landing in Amarillo shortly before noon EDT for a two-hour refueling stop. The ferry flight completed a 100-minute northeastward leg to Offutt Air Force Base in the afternoon, arriving about 3:45 p.m. EDT for an overnight stay at the military installation on the eastern border of Nebraska. The voyage continued to Kentucky's Fort Campbell on Monday, arriving at 10:35 a.m. EDT. But unstable weather in the U.S. Southeast halted any further advance toward Florida for the day. The trip resumed at 6:15 a.m. this morning as the carrier aircraft soared out of southern Kentucky, crossed Tennessee at 15,000 feet, dodged weather in Georgia and then cruised into Florida. The pilots gave local Space Coast residents and visiting tourists a treat with a low-altitude pass along the beaches before arcing over the Atlantic and making the final approach toward the three-mile-long Shuttle Landing Facility runway. The smooth touchdown on Runway 15 came at 8:27 a.m. EDT (1227 GMT), delivering Atlantis back to its homeport 25 days after blasting off with seven astronauts and a 36,000-pound power-generating module for the International Space Station. The highly successful spaceflight connected the new Starboard 3/Starboard 4 truss structure to the station and unfurled a pair of solar wings stretching 240 feet tip-to-tip. "It is great to be here, back at the Shuttle Landing Facility with Atlantis," LeRoy Cain, manager of shuttle integration at Kennedy Space Center said from the runway this morning. "We had a very successful ferry mission across the country. It took us a few days, but it really went very well." Atlantis will be plucked off the 747 later today and towed to its hangar as preparations begin for the ship's next flight, currently targeted for launch December 6 around 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT). That mission will transport the European Space Agency's Columbus science laboratory to the station. "Atlantis is in great shape, as you can see. We're really glad to have her back here and get her processed for the next mission in December," Cain said. Meanwhile, sistership Endeavour has been raised vertically inside Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building for joining with an external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters atop a mobile launch platform. Endeavour was moved to the VAB from its hangar on Monday. NASA plans to roll Endeavour to launch pad 39A early next week. Liftoff is scheduled for about 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on August 7, marking that orbiter's first flight in nearly five years. Endeavour will bring up the small Starboard 5 truss spacer to the station for attachment to the segment just installed by the Atlantis crew. In addition, a Spacehab module riding in Endeavour's payload bay will be filled with a couple tons of food, clothing, supplies and spare parts to be carried through the hatchway and stowed inside the station. Endeavour's crew includes educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan, backup to Challenger "teacher-in-space" Christa McAuliffe. Morgan is now a fully trained astronaut flying as a mission specialist.
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VIDEO:
ATLANTIS LANDS AT EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE 