Atlantis Home

The weather in Florida was still unfriendly to a shuttle landing, so NASA finally brought shuttle Atlantis home to Edwards Air Force Base in California this morning, ending what seems to have been an extremely successful Hubble repair mission.

Ferrying Atlantis back to Florida atop a 747 will cost NASA an extra couple million dollars, but we are approaching the end to that possible expense. It will go away when the shuttle is retired. The planned follow-up to the shuttle, Orion, is a capsule and will be recovered at sea.