Astronaut Rick Sturckow radioed a welcome home to shuttle skipper Jim Halsell and his crew from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.
"Jim, congratulations to you and the crew for just a super mission to the International Space Station," Sturckow said.
Coming after 155 spins around the globe, the shuttles Memorial Day return to KSC actually began on the opposite side of the planet.
Flying Atlantis tail-first and upside down, Halsell fired the shuttles twin maneuvering engines at 1:12 a.m. EDT (05:12 GMT) as Atlantis was traveling at 25 times the speed of sound some 200 miles (320 kilometers) above the south Pacific Ocean.
The three-minute burst slowed the ship by about 214 m.p.h. (342 kilometers per hour), or just enough to send Atlantis and its crew which includes six Americans and a Russian -- on an hour-long free-fall back to Earth.
Thirty-six minutes later at an altitude of about 75 miles (120 kilometers) Atlantis encountered the first sensible traces of the upper atmosphere, and the astronauts began to feel the tug of gravity for the first time in 10 days.
Streaking over the southern tip of Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico, the astronauts finally crossed over Florida's western coast near Fort Myers.
Atlantis then made a beeline past the northern edge of Lake Okeechobee before two quick thunderclaps heralded the shuttles arrival back on Floridas Space Coast.
The distinct double sonic booms are a by-product of supersonic flight. Atlantis, in effect, compressed the air in front of its nose and wings, creating shock waves that spread away from the spacecraft, rattling windows and garage doors beneath the shuttles flight path.
The shuttle ultimately made a giant sweeping left turn over the Atlantic Ocean before lining up for a final approach captured by a camera mounted in the ships cockpit window.
The end-of-mission landing came nine days, 20 hours and nine minutes after the crews sunrise launch on May 19.
NASA mission managers gave the space station maintenance crew a green light for landing after keeping close tabs on gusty winds at the KSC runway.
Strict NASA flight rules call for a night landing attempt to be called off if crosswinds at the three-mile concrete strip top 12 knots.
The reason: Brisk crosswinds could make it difficult to guide the shuttle which flies like a powerless glider during landing onto the swamp-surrounded runway.
Winds between 8 and 13 knots were recorded most of the day Sunday, but the gusts had died down to 6 to 10 knots before flight controllers cleared the astronauts for their trip back to Earth.
During their 4 million-mile (6.4 million-kilometer) journey to and from the International Space Station, the orbital mechanics repaired a faulty outpost electrical system and replaced fire extinguishers and smoke detectors that had exceeded their warranties.
A spacewalk was carried out to latch down a wobbly American cargo crane and mount a Russian construction boom outside the 7-story station, which towered nearly 80 feet (24 meters) from the airlock in the shuttles payload bay.
A balky U.S. radio communications system was fixed and the astronauts hauled about 1.5 tons of equipment and supplies into the outpost for the first full-time station crew, which is due to arrive at the outpost in late October or early November.
The 35-ton station whose orbit had been sinking due to highly active solar flares and a resulting increase in atmospheric drag also got a badly needed boost into a higher orbit.
But perhaps more importantly, the astronauts fixed a problematic ventilation system that had prompted fears about foul air aboard the outpost.
The last crew to visit the station a full year ago suffered nausea, headaches and eye irritation, presumably because of stagnant air and localized buildups of carbon dioxide.
"The air quality problems we might have had on the last mission have been absolutely corrected," said Jim van Laak, a manager in NASAs International Space Station project office. "And there are no concerns whatever about this crew or any other crew visiting the station."
Thats good news for Atlantis crewmates Yuri Usachev, Susan Helms and Jim Voss. The three veteran astronauts will serve as the second full-time station crew during a lengthy tour of duty early next year, and they were pleasantly surprised by conditions aboard their future abode.
"We were really impressed with how spanking clean everything was," said Voss. "I think its a place, having been there for a week, that Ill be able to live in for five-and-a-half months."
Added Helms: "It felt like home. It was just beautiful."
Now a relatively small, two-roomer that consists of a cluttered Russian space tug and an American docking module, the station is expected to double in size by the time Usachev, Helms and Voss arrive there in February or March 2001.
By that time, the outpost also will include:
- A long-delayed Russian command-and-control center that will double as crew living quarters. Slated for launch in mid July, the so-called service module dubbed "Zvezda," or "Star," by the Russians -- is an upgraded copy of the Mir space stations core lab.
- A bus-sized U.S. laboratory that will serve as the stations main hub for scientific research. Named "Destiny," the lab is to be launched on Atlantis in mid January 2001.
Helms, consequently, expects that she and her two crew mates wont have to worry about invading each others space.
"When you add those two other modules onto it, the station will more than double in length. Were going to have plenty of space to live, and I dont think it will seem cramped at all," she said. "Itll probably be just the opposite: Well have trouble finding each other."
Still to come after that: Another 35 U.S. shuttle and seven Russian rocket missions not to mention dozens of Russian resupply flights that will be needed to raise the station, which eventually will span an area almost as large as two American football fields.
Considered by many to be comparable to building the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the $60 billion construction project will take at least another five years to complete. And while the Atlantis flight was relatively problem-free, even senior NASA officials expect trouble along the way.
"It would be inaccurate or dishonest, even, to not make it clear that we are undertaking one of the greatest engineering challenges that humankind has ever undertaken. And I guarantee you over the next few years we will stumble and scrape our knees a few times, and I wouldnt be human if I didnt admit to some concern about that," said van Laak.
"But we have great confidence we can do this safely. Were not going to hurt people, and we dont believe we are going to do damage to the hardware," he added.
"Were just going to occasionally stub our toes, and [well] have to take a step backward and address those problems."
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