The space shuttle Atlantis is halfway through a
cross-country trip atop a modified 747 jet toward its home at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center in Florida.
The shuttle will spend the night at Biggs Army Airfield in
El Paso, Texas after flying
there today from California. If weather permits, Atlantis will complete its
trip east tomorrow.
Atlantis landed May 24 at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern
California, instead of its usual landing strip on the east coast, because of
stormy weather in Florida. The cross-country trip, capping off a successful
mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, costs NASA $1.8
million.
Thunderstorms and high winds prevented plans to begin flying
Atlantis back home early Sunday from the backup landing site. The shuttle is
now riding atop one of NASA's two modified Boeing 747 jumbo jets, which have
been converted to allow a 100-ton shuttle to ride piggyback for the trip home.
Atlantis is returning to Florida after a 13-day flight that
marked the fifth and final service call on the 19-year-old Hubble Space
Telescope. While shuttle technicians prepared the spacecraft for its trip home,
Atlantis' sister ship moved
into position for its planned June launch toward the International
Space Station on Sunday.
Endeavour is slated to launch a crew of seven astronauts to
the station on June 13 to deliver the last piece of outpost's massive Japanese
Kibo lab. Five spacewalks are planned during the 16-day mission.
advertisement
