Atlantis returns safely after a successful mission

Sept 12, 2006 – Gliding through a starry sky, space shuttle Atlantis made a pre-dawn landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bringing six astronauts safely back to Earth, after their 12-day mission that kick-started the construction of the International Space Station.

During the mission the six astronauts accomplished their primary goal of delivering and installing a 35,000-pound segment to the space station, the first addition in nearly four years. They conducted three spacewalks to install the segment, which included solar arrays to generate electricity for the station and a radiator to dissipate excess heat.

NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin said, “We are rebuilding the kind of momentum that we have had in the past, and that we need if we are going to finish the space station. We have an awesome task in front of us.” The space station is almost half constructed.

A mysterious piece of debris caused the landing of Atlantis to be delayed by a day. The debris floating around the shuttle raised concerns that pieces of the shuttle’s all-important heat shield had somehow been broken off and astronauts spent Wednesday surveying the shuttle’s exterior from end to end, using cameras at the end of the ship's robot arm. No damage was found and Atlantis was cleared to land. Such inspections have been routine since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

This safe landing concluded NASA’s 116th shuttle flight – and the 27th mission for the Atlantis orbiter – after 12 days. It also marked NASA’s 15th night landing at KSC and the 21st shuttle landing to take place at night overall. The spaceflight was NASA’s third shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia accident.

The KSC runway was lightly lit by xenon lamps as Atlantis touched down in the early morning hours when the sky was still dark. The shuttle will be thoroughly inspected by engineers, curious to see whether they can find any explanation for those pieces of debris.
NASA, meanwhile, says it hopes it can launch another shuttle mission this year by sending ‘Discovery’ in space this time. The flight is scheduled for December 14.