Wed, Jun 03, 2009
Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in
Florida atop a modified 747 jet known as the Shuttle Carrier
Aircraft, on Tuesday. Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in
California on May 24, completing mission STS-125, a 13-day journey
of approximately 5.3 million miles in space. The piggyback pair
left Edwards Monday morning and flew to Biggs Army Air Field
adjacent to El Paso, Texas, where it remained overnight.
The 747-shuttle combo then flew to Lackland Air Force Base near
San Antonio, Texas, Tuesday morning for refueling, and then
continued on to Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi on the third
leg of the cross-country journey. After refueling again at Columbus
Tuesday afternoon, the modified Boeing 747 with Atlantis atop flew
on to Kennedy, performing a low-level flyby of Florida's space
coast beaches and the space center before touching down at
Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility runway at 6:53 p.m. EDT.
With the STS-125 mission completed, the shuttle team is shifting
its attention to the next flight, space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127
mission to the International Space Station.
Endeavour is in place at Launch Pad 39A, setting the stage for
this week's terminal countdown demonstration test. The STS-127
payload, the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and
Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section, was installed in
Endeavour's payload bay June 1.
The STS-127 crew members arrived at Kennedy on Tuesday for the
terminal countdown demonstration test, which concludes Thursday
with a dress rehearsal for their upcoming launch. Liftoff is
targeted for June 13.
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