Space Shuttle Lands At Edwards

It wasn’t an earthquake that shook Santa Clarita windows shortly after 8:30 a.m., but the Space Shuttle Atlantis’s sonic boom as it landed at Edwards Air Force Base after a successful 13-day mission repairing the Hubble Space Telescope.

Inclement weather prevented the shuttle from landing at NASA in Florida. The shuttle, with its crew of seven, were supposed to land Friday, but NASA made the astronauts orbit in a holding pattern, circling the globe in hopes that thunderstorms on the East coast would stop.

"Welcome home, Atlantis," Mission Control radioed once the shuttle came to a safe stop.
"Congratulations on a very successful mission giving Hubble a new set of eyes."

The shuttle will be ferried from Edwards back to Florida within the next week, at a cost of approximately $2 million. The astronauts will be reunited with their families in Florida tomorrow.