Atlantis Home from STS-117
The space shuttle Atlantis touched down Friday afternoon after a successful mission servicing the International Space Station. Because of bad weather in Florida, the shuttle was delayed a day, and finally re-routed to Edwards Air Force Base in California. It touched down at 3:49 pm EDT.
Over the course of their 14-day mission in space, the astronaut crew installed the new S3/S4 truss to the station, and deployed the new solar wings. They also retracted an older solar array, and performed some other minor fixes.
One of the big concerns was a thermal blanket that dislodged during Atlantis‘ launch. The astronauts tucked the blanket back in during one the mission’s 4 spacewalks. Whether or not the repair was necessary, Atlantis returned through the Earth’s atmosphere without a problem.
The next mission, STS-118, is scheduled for August and will deliver the S5 truss segment to the station.
Original Source : NASA
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